TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Baseball Notebook: Cobras Basking In 'Bright Spot'

ADVERTISEMENT

By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 27, 2009

HUDSON - March 20, 2009: Hudson 10, Pasco 9.

For Hudson seniors Anthony Siciliano and Hunter Newton, it made what has been a dismal senior season. For the remaining Cobras, it gives hope for the future.

For the first time in at least six years, Hudson beat big, bad Pasco. And on the Pirates' home field.

"Biggest bright spot I've seen here in the four years I've been here," said Keith Newton, Hudson's first-year varsity coach. "I can't find anyone in the last six years that remembers Hudson beating Pasco. It's been awhile."

No one would have predicted it. The Pirates, who advanced to the Class 4A region finals last year, were 9-1 heading into the game and hadn't lost since their season opener against Land O' Lakes. The Cobras were 1-13 and had lost to Pasco 20-4 on Feb. 24.

But it happened.

"I told the kids every time they play Pasco they always get uptight because Pasco has been notorious for really having a good team for a long time," said Newton, who previously was Hudson's JV coach. "We're 1-13, they are 9-1. They're undefeated in the district. Just go out and play loosey goosey. Have fun and leave it out on the field. By about the fourth inning, they knew they were in a ballgame."

The Cobras jumped to a 7-5 lead after four innings but the Pirates scored four in the bottom of the fifth to take a 9-7 lead. Before the Cobras batted in the seventh, Newton called a quick team meeting.

"I told the kids, 'Let's make them nervous. Let's do something we haven't done all year. Let's tie this game up and make it go into the bottom of the seventh or let's go ahead and really make them nervous.'"

That's exactly what Hudson did. Hudson scored on a passed ball, making it 9-8, and had runners on second and third with Siciliano batting.

"He had two strikes and I knew he was nervous, so I made him get out of the box," Newton said. "I told him, 'You're a senior, relax, put this ball in play and make them play defense.' Well, he ripped a nice shot right up the middle and we scored both runs to go ahead 10-9."

But Newton still couldn't relax - not against Pasco's potent offense.

"Of course, the next thing was, were we going to defend them. They've got No. 7, 8, 9, and 1 batters coming up," Newton said. "We don't want to get to Josh Johnson if we don't have to because he had already hit a home run in the game. I had my relief pitcher - junior Mason Guy - in there. He had already pitched two innings. We got to two outs and a runner on first with Josh Johnson coming to the plate.

"He had hit a home run the last time up so I walked him intentionally. That didn't make him happy, but I didn't want to get beat by him. The next guy up had hit to the shortstop three times so I moved my shortstop Hunter Newton over, and the batter hit a line drive right to Hunter and he went to a knee to squeeze that last out."

The celebration that followed was one usually reserved for a championship.

"They went crazy. You would have thought it was the World Series," Newton said. "But how the season had gone and never beating Pasco, it was a big game. It was a district game and it proved on any night, if you want to play ball, you can challenge anyone."

ANOTHER BIG WIN: Hudson wasn't the only area school to post a big win. Mitchell defeated Alonso on Tuesday for the first time in school history to clinch a first-round bye in the Class 6A-7 district tournament and move within a half-game of the district-leading Ravens.

"In my mind, the win is a real good confidence booster, but if you tell anyone else, they're not going to think it's a big deal because we're not respected yet," winning pitcher Patrick Schuster said. "Knowing this team can come back against a team like Alonso really is a confidence booster."

Mitchell had lost the previous seven meetings against Alonso and unless they meet in the district tournament, probably will be the last time for a while. Mitchell will drop to 4A next year when Anclote High in Holiday opens in August.

"Alonso has been a dominating team the last couple years," Mitchell coach Scot Wilcox said. "In the past it seems like we came in here and were just happy to come here and play a good game. This year has been different. We expect to win every game - even if it is Alonso."

TOURNEY TIME: Spring tournaments are scheduled during the next few weeks and the first is the Dunedin Spring Tournament, beginning Monday at the Englebert Complex. River Ridge will play Palm Harbor on Monday at 8 p.m. The host Falcons are the defending 5A state champions. The tournament runs through April 3.

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

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT