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Land O’Lakes pitches, hits way to Farm Bureau Classic championship

The Gators get some timely hitting and closer Ryan Ricardo comes through again in a 9-2 win over Hernando.
 
Published March 24, 2018

BROOKSVILLE — The game plan for Land O'Lakes is pretty simple. The Gators rely on their pitching and defense, and hope they can score enough runs to win.

That strategy worked during the Farm Bureau Classic this week, especially in the final against host Hernando. The Gators got out to an early lead, gave it up, then put the game away in the final innings to defeat the Leopards 9-2.

In the four games of the spring break tournament, Land O'Lakes gave up four runs total.

"Our strength is our pitching and defense," Land O'Lakes coach Calvin Baisley said. "You're going to have to earn it against us. Our recipe is play good defense and try to find a way to score four runs."

Land O'Lakes (10-3) scored the first two runs the old-fashioned way. With one out in the second inning, Brett Gwinn reached on a single. Garrett Weaver then hit a towering home run to leftfield that made the score 2-0.

Hernando (9-3) erased the deficit in the bottom of the second. Kobe Simon walked and reached second base on a throwing error. Shemar Lawson then doubled down the rightfield line to make it 2-1. Lawson then scored on a stolen base and another throwing error to even the game.

After the Gators scored a run in the fourth, they broke it open with three runs in the fifth. They loaded the bases with no outs. Gwinn had the big hit, a double that scored two runs.

"That was really crucial," Gwinn said. "We needed a big hit with runners on and I guess I was the one to get it."

Hernando was unable to get anything going offensively after the second inning. With one on and no outs in the fifth inning, Baisley went to his closer, Ryan Ricardo. Ricardo pitched in the three prior tournament games and didn't give up a run. He would do the same Friday night.

Ricardo faced nine batters in the three innings he pitched and did not give up a hit. Meanwhile, his teammates got him three more runs in the seventh inning to put the game away.

"That was big," said Ricardo, who was named the tournament MVP. "There wasn't a lot of pressure when the lead got to be that big."

Hernando coach Tim Sims was fully aware of Ricardo and wanted to score runs early so the Gators wouldn't use him.

"We were trying to get into their bullpen early enough to keep Ricardo out of the dad gum game," Sims said. "We weren't able to do that."

Gwinn led Land O'Lakes' offensive attack with three hits and three runs scored. Brian Holiday had a triple and an RBI.

Connor Morgan was 2-for-3 for the Leopards. Including Thursday  night, he had six straight hits before grounding out in the sixth inning.