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Cambridge's Late Rally Falls Short

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By ADAM ADKINS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 21, 2008

SARASOTA - They never quit.

Despite facing a huge whole early against a state powerhouse program, the Cambridge Christian baseball team refused to roll over. The Lancers fought. They clawed. And, eventually, they put a scare into the Jacksonville Eagle's View Academy Warriors.

In the end, they just didn't have enough.

The Class 1A machine known as Jacksonville Eagle's View collected its second consecutive state title - and third in the last four years - with an 8-6 victory Tuesday night at Ed Smith Stadium. It spoiled the Lancers' first trip to the state title game and prevented them from bringing home Hillsborough County's first state baseball championship since 2001.

But, as tough as the loss was to swallow, the Lancers never hung their heads. As they had done all season, they fought to the end. Knowing that brought a wealth of satisfaction, even if the medal hanging around their necks after the game was silver instead of gold.

"I would not want to go out any other way," senior Taylor Cabral said, though fellow senior Michael Miller quickly jumped in with "except with a win."

A chance at a win by the Lancers (26-3) seemed slim after the Warriors (25-8) raced to a 6-0 lead after two innings and 7-0 after three, collecting eight hits during that time to chase Miller from the mound. And the early onslaught was the key in the win, according to Warriors coach Gil Morales, a 1994 Bloomingdale High graduate.

"The best thing was we jumped on them early," Morales said. "We could tell by their swings that they were getting very comfortable in that fourth inning, and they scratch out a run. Next thing you know, they're fielding the ball well and they're not making mistakes. We knew the game was shifting."

And shift it did, none more so than in Cambridge Christian's final at-bat.

The first four batters reached in the seventh, the last two Andrew Widell and Trent Tagliarini, who lined consecutive RBI singles to make it 8-3. Erik Shears followed with a sacrifice fly to score another. Then Miller stepped into the box and crushed a 3-2 pitch from Kyle Green over the left-field wall to make it 8-6, causing an explosion of cheers in the Cambridge Christian dugout.

"When we got that, I thought we had a real possibility to win," Miller said.

The hits finally ran out, however. Green settled down and struck out the next two Lancers batters to end the game.

The late rally not only made things interesting, but it also brought to light a few missed opportunities. Cambridge Christian had runners on second and third with one out in the second but failed to produce a run. In the sixth, the Lancers had two on with two outs and had a runner picked off to end the inning.

But the Lancers weren't dwelling on missed opportunities after the game. Instead, they pointed to the one thing they know they did right.

"We never gave up," Tagliarini said.

The fight the Lancers displayed throughout the game was a fitting end to the best season in program history, and it was something Coach Rick Shears believes will stay with each of his players forever.

"We teach a lot of life lessons here, and that was a life lesson where they became men," Shears said. "I really felt that. They're going to have that not-give-up attitude, and they'll remember this for a lifetime."

Reporter Adam Adkins can be reached at (813) 657-4533 or aadkins@tampatrib.com.

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