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Baseball Notebook: SAC Future Up In The Air?

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By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 6, 2009

In the next month, the Florida High School Athletic Association may have a big impact on the future of the Sunshine Athletic Conference.

Revised district alignments were announced Wednesday with some minor shuffling. But that's not the concern of the SAC. With the addition of Anclote High, which begins play in the fall, the conference will grow to 12 schools.

On April 26, the FHSAA Board of Directors will vote on a proposal to reduce the number of regular-season contests in baseball, softball, boys and girls basketball and boys and girls soccer from 25 to 20, effective for the 2009-10 school year.

If this passes, it will be impossible for conference members to play each other unless the districts go to a single-district game format instead of the current home-and-home schedule.

While the district alignments announced only cover volleyball, basketball and soccer, the baseball and softball districts should align with those other sports when they are announced later this spring.

If the reduction of contests is approved, schools like Land O' Lakes, River Ridge, Sunlake, Wiregrass Ranch and Zephyrhills won't be able to play all of the other SAC teams. Currently, football is the only SAC sport where all conference teams aren't required to play each other.

Those schools are in the new Class 4A-District 8, along with Citrus, Hernando, Lecanto and Nature Coast. That means 16 district games and only four other contests available to schedule among the remaining seven SAC schools. The other seven SAC schools Anclote, Gulf, Hudson, Mitchell, Pasco, Ridgewood (5A-8) and Wesley Chapel are in 4A-7.

At a meeting in February, the SAC directors voted not to split the conference into two divisions, but if the contest reduction is approved by the FHSAA, the board may have to revisit that thought.

All of the Pasco County schools requesting appeals from the original realignment were approved. Wiregrass Ranch and Ridgewood were moved from 5A to 4A, while Pasco was moved from 3A to 4A. Zephyrhills was transferred from 4A-7 to 4A-8.

The two private county schools - Bishop McLaughlin and Academy at the Lakes - will be 2A and 1A, respectively.

OLD COLLEGE TRY

Bishop McLaughlin will play a "home game" against St. Petersburg Catholic at Saint Leo University's Southard Stadium on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Originally scheduled to be played at the Hurricanes' home field, the game was moved to the neutral site, giving the two teams the opportunity to showcase their talents on the home field of the NCAA Division II Lions.

"Giving our student-athletes the opportunity to play at Saint Leo should provide them with a unique experience of playing at a facility that is among the area's best," said Bishop McLaughlin athletic director Eddie Kenny. "Having the chance to bring two Catholic schools together at a university that shares the same core values was something that appealed to our program as well as St. Pete Catholic. We are very appreciative of the opportunity provided by Saint Leo University, its athletic administration and baseball staff."

AROUND THE BASES

Wiregrass Ranch P Abel Cubero struck out 15 in a 4-3 win against Hernando on Tuesday. Cubero (2-0) went the distance, giving up three runs on six hits. ... River Ridge P Corey Lapp is off to a 3-0 record with three complete games after a 4-2 win against Wesley Chapel on Tuesday. Lapp has a 0.41 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 17 innings and opponents are hitting .191 against him. ... Pasco is averaging 12.8 runs a game but got a 5-1 win against Springstead on Tuesday with only one hit. The Pirates took advantage of nine walks, two hit batters and four Eagles errors. Jacob Schrader, who is hitting .786 through six games, got the only hit for Pasco. ... Gulf's Sam Keppner went 2-for-4 with a triple and five RBIs as the Bucs won their first game of the season, 8-6 against Hudson on Tuesday. ... Land O' Lakes RHP Brad Renner has signed a letter-of-intent with Rollins College.

Correspondent Rick Harmon can be reached at (727) 692-7411 or tampabaystringer@gmail.com.

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