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Baseball: Armwood, Brandon to meet for 5A-8 title

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A Tribune staff report

Published: April 30, 2009

TAMPA - Zack Powers and Kristian Calibuso provided the offense, and ace pitcher Robert Benincasa went the distance to power Armwood to a 6-0 victory against Bloomingdale in a Class 5A-District 8 semifinal at Wharton.

The win secured the Hawks their first playoff berth since 2005, and also put them into tonight's district title game against defending district champion Brandon, which defeated Wharton 14-3 in the other semifinal.

Powers hit a two-run homer in the first and added a solo shot in the third, and Calibuso smacked a three-run homer in the fifth to power Armwood (20-5).

That proved more than enough for Benincasa, as the right-hander scattered six hits - all singles - and struck out four while allowing just one runner to reach scoring position. Sal Giardina and Alex Caballero each had two hits for the Bulls (15-8).

Brandon right-hander Cory Schools also went the distance to earn a win against the Wildcats in the other semifinal, though he only had to produce five innings as the Eagles' offense broke out.

Brandon (20-5) put the finishing touches on a mercy-rule shortened game with six runs in the fourth, scoring all of them with two outs after a pair of Wildcats (12-13) errors kept the inning alive.

Spencer Haynes went 2-for-2 with four RBIs, Mike Smith went 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBIs, and Aaron Estrada had two hits and three RBIs for Brandon. Cory Nelson had two hits and Gabriel Collazo had a two-run homer for Wharton.

Adam Adkins

5A-7: Wesley Chapel stuns Land O' Lakes

NEW PORT RICHEY - When Wesley Chapel beat King in its final game of the Saladino Tournament earlier this month, Wildcats coach Chuck Yingling hoped the experience against Hillsborough County teams would help his team down the stretch.

It has.

The fourth-seeded Wildcats lost to Mitchell in their next game following the Saladino but haven't lost since. They advanced to tonight's Class 5A-District 7 title game against Brooksville Central with a 4-1 win vs. top seed Land O' Lakes in a semifinal at Ridgewood.

The win also advances Wesley Chapel (11-14) to the region tournament for the second consecutive year.

"The intensity helped us last year at the Saladino," Yingling said. "We got a win in the third game and that has helped. We're still very young. We only had one senior and one junior in the starting lineup."

Sophomore Brandon Mumaw saved his best performance of the season for the Gators (16-9). The left-hander gave up three singles and a third-inning home run to Austin Costa in six innings. Monday's winning pitcher Christian Illing pitched the seventh, striking out two, to earn the save.

Wesley Chapel only had five hits off Gators starting pitcher Jason Garcia but took advantage of two errors, three walks, two hit batters and a balk to score its four runs. The Wildcats had seven singles.

Rick Harmon

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