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Region baseball: Venice dispatches Mitchell

 
Published May 24, 2018

NEW PORT RICHEY — Walking by the football field and toward the parking lot after Wednesday's Class 7A region final at Ridgewood High, several Venice High players were caught by surprise as the irrigation system turned on.

But while shaking off the unexpected wetness, one of the Indian athletes exclaimed, "This ain't gonna cool us off!"

Indeed, for two hours prior, the perennial playoff participant was on fire, coming back to defeat host Mitchell 5-2 and advance to a date with Doral Academy on May 30 in Fort Myers in the state final four.

Four-time state champion Venice (24-8) did all of the things a battle-tested team does: shaking off an early deficit, taking advantage of even the slightest opportunities, playing clean and, most importantly, getting a lot of quality pitching.

Much of this came together in a decisive second inning. Trailing the Mustangs (23-7) when Jackson Miller's two-out single scored Jake Mattos (double), the Indians immediately threatened when Mac Guscette (three singles) walked and moved to third as Danny Rodriguez's one-out fly ball was lost in bright afternoon sun and turned into a double. Jacob Zito delivered a sacrifice fly to score courtesy runner Clay Callan, then Nick Riccardi surprised the Mitchell defense by laying down a bunt that was thrown wide to first, plating Rodriguez. Two batters later, leadoff man Kevin Dubrule singled to leftfield, bringing home Riccardi.

"We were mentally ready," said Craig Faulkner, Venice's veteran coach and recent FHSAA Hall of Fame electee. "With all of the rain we've had, they got their minds right. They handled everything like pros. This team has strong chemistry and strong hearts."

"I think we match up well with them, but a few plays here and there … that one bad inning, if we could erase that," said Mustangs coach Howard Chittum. "But that's baseball. You've got to have a short memory and bounce back from that adversity."

And Venice's pitching just wouldn't let that happen.

Mixing speeds and adding an effective slider that high school batters aren't used to seeing, junior starter Orion Kerkering (six strikeouts) shook off a hot Mustang start and eventually cooled off their bats. He went from giving up five hits and two doubles to the first 10 hitters he faced to yielding only three more base runners (two walks and a hit batter) before giving way to classmate Danny Rodriguez with two outs in the fifth. Carrington Adler's second-inning infield out scored Kyle Murphy (leadoff single) but would be Mitchell's last run of the season.

"All credit goes to their pitchers," Chittum said. "(Kerkering) located (his off-speed pitches) well, they called their pitches well … he kept us off-balance."

And Rodriguez slammed the door, retiring all seven batters he faced, four by strikeout.

"It's really big to have two big arms but we have more than two good pitchers," Faulkner said. "It's unfortunate that we only play one game a week in the playoffs but we'll use more next week in the state semifinals."

Mitchell ace Mattos (two earned runs, five hits, five strikeouts) battled control issues, issuing five walks. The last, a bases-loaded free pass to Riccardi with two outs in the fifth, ended his day. Miller allowed one hit and an unearned run in 2 1/3 innings of relief, fanning two.

"I coached at Ridgewood for 18 years (before moving to Mitchell this season)," Chittum said. "All I heard when I got here was that the good team was here last year, but I think the good team was here this year.

"I don't think anybody expected us to be here, but we proved everybody wrong."