At Brandon
Scores
Strawberry Crest 5, Plant City 1
Durant 5, Spoto 1
Bloomingdale 9, Leto 4
Brandon 9, Middleton 2
Pitcher of the day
Despite dropping the decision, Spoto senior Geronimo Allison pitched a five-hit complete game against Durant, striking out five and not walking a batter. Only two of the runs were earned.
Hitter of the day
Bloomingdale senior infielder Nolan Schrenker went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and hit an inside-the-park homer to crack the game open against Leto. "I rounded second base and I saw coach waving me in, I figured I might as well go," Schrenker said. … Bloomingdale senior infielder Richie Martin reached base after three of his four plate appearances, including a bunt single and a walk. He drove in a run with sacrifice fly. … The most feared hitter was Brandon junior DH Michael Caballero, who crushed a two-run single in the first inning and walked his next three at-bats.
Defensive gem of the day
This was produced by Durant's infield. With two on and no outs, Spoto sophomore Brandon Johnson beat the throw to first but the two runners ahead of him overran second and third, so Cougars senior first baseman Trey Oest zipped the ball to third, where the runner was tagged out. Then the Cougars fired to second to get the other runner. Durant later caught Johnson leading off of second base to end the inning. "You practice things like that in practice, to see it happen on the field is special," Cougars coach Butch Valdes said.
Dugout chatter
On the new BBCOR bats, which use a different metal alloy that has less of a trampoline effect on batted balls than in the past:
"It's back to old-school baseball. It's the way baseball should be."
Butch Valdes, Durant coach
"It's a big change for us because we relied on extra-base hits in the past, but we have a lot of team speed so we are buying into the small-ball game."
Kris Wilken, Bloomingdale coach
Andy Warrener, Times correspondent
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