TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Baseball: Land O' Lakes Wiggles Out Another Win

ADVERTISEMENT

By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 3, 2009

LAND O'LAKES - Through three innings, Land O' Lakes gave Ridgewood every opportunity to blow the game open. But it didn't happen. And every time Ridgewood gave Land O'Lakes a chance, the Gators took advantage.

Scoring the lead-off man in the first three innings was all starting pitchers Jason Garcia needed as the Gators remained undefeated with a 4-1 Class 5A-District 7 win against the Rams on Tuesday at Cal Baisley Field.

"Yeah," said Gators coach Cal Baisley about getting runs from the lead-off hitters. "But we put [Ridgewood's] first three leadoff batters on base, too. We've been dodging some bullets. We've put ourselves in holes defensively and we wiggled off the hook with some big pitches and big plays."

J.J. Downum reached first on an error to open the game, stole second and went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Curt Hilgenberg. Downum scored on a single by Nick Pardo. In the second, Austin Aubuchon beat out a ground ball in the hole at shortstop for a single, was balked to second and scored on a single by Jason Carrier. In the third, Pardo was hit by a pitch, went to third on a single by Alex Pratt and scored on a single by Aubuchon.

All of this against Ridgewood ace Jay Mattos, who finished the game with 10 strikeouts and two walks on 111 pitches.

"[Tuesday] we beat a pretty good pitcher," Baisley said. "He's not overpowering but he goes out there and competes. He throws from everywhere. He holds runners on base and fields his position."

The Gators (5-0, 3-0 5A-7) dodged those bullets Baisley was talking about in the first three innings as the Rams (2-5, 0-3) left 7 men on base in the first three innings, including the bases loaded and one out in the first and had bases loaded and no outs in the third but had a runner picked off first.

"We left 13 runners in scoring position by different people," said Ridgewood coach Larry Beets. "We jumped away from [Garcia's] curveball. That was the hardest curveball we've seen. The home run was my fault. I called the wrong pitch. But out of 111 pitches, I called one wrong. Give [Austin Costa] credit, he hit it hard.

Costa's blast, in the bottom of the sixth with two outs, went sailing over the left-field wall.

Only once against Garcia did the Rams go down in order (fourth inning) and finally got on the board in the sixth when the junior right-hander hit Vinny Salvagno to lead off the inning. Luke Mathews sacrificed Salvagno to second and one out later, Jon Balk singled, sending Salvagno to third. Brendan Murphy followed with a double to score Salvagno but Balk and Murphy were left stranded.

"Jason's got great stuff," Baisley said. "I'd like to see him be more consistent … and so would he. He's got good movement on his fastball and we went with his breaking ball quite a bit. I have a lot of confidence in Jason."

Garcia went six innings, allowing one run on five hits and struck out seven. But he walked five and hit two others. In the seventh, he yielded to closer Aubuchon.

"We've been using him to close because he has three pitches and throws them all for strikes and he doesn't walk people," Baisley said. "If we have a 3-run lead, they're going to have to hit the ball. And if they do, my hat's off to them. He's not going to give you the game."

Aubuchon threw 14 pitches, 10 for strikes and struck out the side in the seventh to earn his third save of the season.

"Who'd have thunk that," said Baisley on his Gators undefeated start. "I know there's talent but they haven't played here before. This is the first time at this level and we've made some mistakes. Hopefully we'll learn from those mistakes and get better. Anytime you can beat Ridgewood, that's an accomplishment. You know they're going to play well."

Ridgewood 000 001 0 -- 1 5 1
Land O' Lakes 111 001 x -- 4 9 0

W -- Garcia (3-0). L -- Mattos (1-2). S -- Aubuchon (3). 2B -- Mattos, Murphy (R), Hilgenberg (L). HR -- Costa (L). Records -- R 2-5, 0-3 5A-7, 0-3 Sunshine Athletic Conference); L 5-0, 3-0, 4-0).

Correspondent Rick Harmon can be reached at tampabaystringer@gmail.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT