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District baseball: Tampa Catholic blanks Sarasota Booker

 
Published April 22, 2015

TAMPA — Tampa Catholic's record won't blow you away, but coach Ty Griffin says you may end up being surprised.

The Crusaders mixed some timely hitting with a sterling pitching performance from junior Roland Chacon to advance to the Class 4A-10 district championship with a 5-0 win over Sarasota Booker on Tuesday night.

Tampa Catholic is now 14-11-1 after a couple of RBI singles by Jordan Santos and a 90-pitch five-hit shutout from Chacon, and will meet Berkeley Prep on Thursday for the championship.

"We set up a tough schedule this year, so even though our records are similar to Berkeley (12-12) and Booker (9-14), the level of talent that we played, I think, is off the charts," Griffin said. "And we did it for a reason. We took some lumps early, but won some big games early. Getting to this point, I wanted us to be battle ready. If the first few innings don't go your way, you keep battling. I think we did that tonight."

The Crusaders didn't have a hit the first two innings and Chacon was in some early trouble, but the rest of the game was all Tampa Catholic. Santos drove in Ty Lala, who had singled, with the first run in the third inning. Conor Grady drove in another with a shot off the fence in leftfield, and later scored, to make it 3-0 after four innings.

Santos added an RBI hit in the fifth, driving in Garrett Back, and scored on an error after stealing third base.

Chacon did the rest. He struck out seven batters, including the last two of the game after giving up a leadoff double in the seventh, to win his second straight start.

"I started a little slow, but once I got a little run support, I really started to find my rhythm and started clicking," he said.

Big first for CDS

TAMPA — It was a night of firsts for Carrollwood Day and Bishop McLaughlin right-hander Nate Pearson on Tuesday in the Class 3A, District 7 semifinals.

Third-seeded Carrollwood Day (14-8) defeated No. 2 Tampa Prep (14-11) for the first time behind senior Bryce Benedict's 5-1 complete-game victory. Pearson, an FIU commit, threw first-pitch strikes to 20 of 25 batters as top-seeded Bishop McLaughlin (22-3) extended its win streak to nine with a 6-2 win vs. No. 4 Brooks DeBartolo (12-13).

The district final is Thursday at 6 p.m. at Tampa Prep.

"It's awesome. … I can't believe (we won)," said Benedict, who has played at CDS for five years. "It was a team effort."

The right-hander cruised after he was given a 2-0 third-inning lead. He scattered six hits, struck out five and didn't allow a walk.

"(Benedict) didn't have his curve very well, which is normally one of his best pitches," CDS coach Nick Rodriguez said. "He still battled through it."

Gabriel Montenegro had two hits and two RBIs for the Patriots, and Hunter Creech added a double and knocked in two.

"(Carrollwood Day) probably lost 12 to 15 straight games against Tampa Prep," said Rodriguez, a Tampa Prep graduate who joined Carrollwood Day 2-1/2 years ago after starting the Bishop McLaughlin program, where he was for six seasons. "This was a nice win."

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Pearson dominated with a 94-mph fastball in his complete game. He struck out 11, allowed three hits and walked one. He faced only one batter over the minimum until the seventh, when the Phoenix scored both runs.

"My offspeed wasn't all there, but my fastball is always there. … It stays consistent," Pearson said. "I always try to get ahead early (in the count). Your confidence gets up a lot more once you get ahead of the batter, and then you also see velocity increase because you're already comfortable."

Six Bishop McLaughlin batters had the seven hits, and five had at least one RBI.

Don Jensen, Times correspondent