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Hot Plant Wins 7th Straight

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By ADAM ADKINS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 28, 2009

TAMPA - A common theme has developed during the Plant baseball team's current win streak: quality starting pitching.

Senior righty Jake Lowe kept that theme going Saturday afternoon by firing a three-hitter in Plant's 8-0 victory against Leto (6-9) at Wade Boggs Field, pushing the Panthers' (12-2) winning streak to seven.

"We knew coming into the year we didn't have the bats that we used to have, and we knew that we were going to have to rely on our pitching," Lowe said. "We knew with the pitching we have we could be in every single game. We're all just trying to compete with each other, but we all want each other to do well."

Lowe carried a perfect game into the fourth before surrendering a leadoff single to Erick Guiterrez (2-for-3). He allowed consecutive one-out base hits in the sixth but got out of the jam by retiring the next two. Lowe then followed with a perfect seventh - ending the game with his eighth strikeout - to finish off his second shutout of the season, and the fourth shutout for the Panthers' pitching staff during the win streak.

"He's got a great sinker, and it was moving and dancing around today," Plant coach Dennis Braun said. "He just kind of throws it in there and they generally get themselves out."

Graham Ramos' three-run homer capped a four-run second inning that started the Panthers offense. Stan Rowe had two hits, two RBIs and scored once, and Mike Demo added two hits, an RBI and one run scored.

Plant City Girls Take Relays

Many of the top athletes were resting for Tuesday's Hillsborough County Championships, or they were in Tallahassee for the FSU Relays, or they were getting their hair ready for Saturday's prom. But, despite all the absentees, the annual Manuel/Griffin/Fraundorfer Relays offered up some bright spots, particularly from Plant City's girls.

The Raiders girls won with 73 points, 11 ahead of Gaither.

"This is a meet for sprinters and today our sprinters did a great job," Plant City coach John Ackerman said. "I know some other teams didn't have all their runners here today, but today, our runners all showed up and ran a great meet."

Leading the way was Jasmine Pope, who led Plant City to victories in the sprint medley, 4x100 and 4x200, and second in the long jump, in which she placed second as an individual.

"She has been outstanding," Ackerman said. "I couldn't ask for much more."

On the boys side, Hillsborough won with 59 points, eight ahead of East Bay.

The Terriers won despite the absence of standouts Lindsey Lamar and Terrence Mitchell, who Terrier coach Joey Sipp said were resting for Tuesday.

"That's OK because today we got a chance to run a lot of younger guys," Sipp said. "Some guys really stepped up. Now we know that if we give some of these guys some more work they can take it to the next level."

Scott Purks

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