Plant City All-Star Makes Pitch To Start

PLANT CITY - While some of his fellow all-stars were not ready to be the first to face a powerful Pinellas County lineup, Aaron Gerbasi practically begged for the ball.

"Hey, I'm used to starting, and I wanted to pitch against those guys," said Gerbasi, who represented Plant City High well in the second annual Rays High School All-Star Classic.

Also playing on the Hillsborough County all-star squad was Durant infielder Taed Moses. The game, pitting the best from Hillsborough and Pinellas counties against one another, was played Sunday at Tropicana Field, hours after the Rays finished off a victory against the Chicago White Sox.

The big-time stadium environment did not intimidate Gerbasi, nor did the sluggers at the top of the Pinellas all-stars batting order. Gerbasi volunteered to start.

"The coaches said it was down to four guys, but a couple of them didn't want to start. So, we actually flipped a coin," said Gerbasi, who won the toss over Jesuit's Matt Brazis.

Leading off were the top two hitters from Dunedin High, which recently won the Class 5A state championship.

Gerbasi was able to retire Max Kreuter, with the help of a nice catch from Tampa Catholic's Eric Gerken.

After that Gerbasi struck out Dunedin's top hitter, Jacob Rogers, before getting Sam Mende from Clearwater Central Catholic to ground out.

That was it for Gerbasi's day, but it was plenty.

"We had nine pitchers on the roster, so I knew that I'd be throwing just one inning," he said. "It was pretty cool, growing up watching games there and then being able to pitch there."

Moses started at third base for Hillsborough County and did very well, too, getting two hits and scoring two runs. Hillsborough County won the game 11-6.

Gerbasi is off to the University of Tampa (along with Kreuter) in the fall. Moses recently signed to play for Seminole Community College.