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Cambridge Heading To State

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By ADAM ADKINS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 10, 2008

TAMPA - The Cambridge Christian baseball team had never been as happy to run its postgame sprints as the Lancers were Friday. And they probably have never run them faster, even though they'd just played 14 innings instead of seven.

The Lancers were overjoyed because they'd just swept a doubleheader against Bradenton Christian at Doc Nance Field, winning 3-2 and 3-1. The wins gave them a best-of-three Class 1A-Region 3 series victory and put the Lancers into the state baseball tournament for only the second time in school history and first since 2001.

Cambridge Christian (25-2) will face the winner of the Region 2 series between Ocoee Central Florida Christian and Deltona Trinity Christian in a state semifinal May 19 at Sarasota's Ed Smith Stadium at a time yet to be determined.

"This was our goal all along," senior Michael Miller said. "I definitely thought we could do it. I wasn't going to accept anything less."

The Lancers won't have to after playing 14 innings of near perfect baseball. And it was Miller and sophomore Matt Fishman who set the tone Friday, much the way they have all season.

The right-handers both tossed complete games, each yielding just five hits in their respective outings. Neither pitcher was particularly overpowering - they combined for just four strikeouts - and rather relied on their defense, which performed arguably its best all season. The Lancers turned four double plays and committed just one error.

The Lancers offense wasn't at its best, but individuals stepped up when needed.

Senior Taylor Cabral was the culprit in Game 1, lining a two-run double to left and later stealing third and scoring on a balk to complete a three-run second. In Game 2, sophomore Logan McDougall had two RBI singles, one in the second and one in the sixth, but the biggest hit came off the bat of freshman Andrew Widell, who drove a single up the middle in the fifth to score senior Will Bakos, which broke a tie at 1.

Altogether, it was a recipe the Lancers have followed to success all season, and one that if followed in the state tournament could give Cambridge Christian a chance to bring a piece of hardware back to Tampa.

"Fantastic fielding, timely hits, great pitching," Lancers coach Rick Shears said with a smile. "It hasn't changed all year."

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