Rowland cruises in Durant’s shutout against Newsome
By Lily Belcher
Correspondent
PLANT CITY – Durant topped Newsome 5-0 in a pitching duel between the rival packs and district opponents Thursday night. Starting right-handers sophomore Blaine Rowland for the Cougars and junior Evan Dempsey for the Wolves, kept bats silent through the first two-and-a-half innings, but Durant cracked the scoreboard in the third.
Rowland, who broke his arm at the beginning of the season, returned to the mound 10 days ago. In his third appearance he allowed only four to reach base, recorded four swinging strikeouts and caught two looking in picking up his second win.
“I wanted to be there,” Rowland explained about his return to the mound. “I knew [senior Torin Byrnes] was going to come in after, so I wasn’t really worried about anything after that.”
Brantley Hayward, Durant’s freshman designated hitter, took the first walk given up by Dempsey and advanced to third before scoring off a wild pitch to put the Cougars on the board in the third.
“We capitalized on some of their wild pitches and their mistakes,” explained Durant coach Butch Valdes, who said before the game that the win would go to whichever team made the fewest errors.
The shift in momentum was obvious in the Cougars offense in the second half of the game. Senior Avery Cherry drove in the second run on an RBI double, before scoring himself off another wild pitch in the fifth.
“We stay high pretty much the whole time,” said Cherry about the energy in the dugout. “It’s just, when something does happen, we get a little crazier. We just kept getting crazy and it shut them down … once we get rolling, we just got to keep going.”
Durant did keep it rolling, adding two more runs to bring its final score to five. A one-out double by junior Gavin Florio put him on the base path in the sixth, and a series of errors by Newsome’s infield allowed Florio to score and set Hayward up at third to score off a sacrifice fly by sophomore Devin Suero.
While Durant’s offense managed to put up five runs in the shut-out victory, Newsome’s pitching stood out as Dempsey tossed nine strikeouts over his five-inning appearance and gave up only two hits.
“Dempsey is a great pitcher,” said Valdes. “He really is. That was tough but it was a good game. I’m proud of the boys.”
Dempsey was relieved by sophomore Ryan Spitzer, who gave Newsome its tenth strikeout of the night.
Durant’s pitching duo of Rowland and Byrnes held the Wolves to two hits and pitched a combined 10 strikeouts.
Thursday’s match was the second and final regular season faceoff between Newsome and Durant and the second to go in Cougars’ favor.
“I don’t recall the last time that has happened, so it’s a great feeling,” said Valdes.
Durant will host Spoto and Newsome will travel to Bloomingdale next Tuesday at 7 pm.
⚾⚾⚾⚾
(T4) Durant 5
(6) Newsome 0
N 000|000|0 – |0|2|1
D 001|022|x – |5|3|1
W – Rowland (2-0); L – Dempsey (4-3); S – Byrnes (1)
2B – Florio (D). Records – N (13-5, 3-3 in 7A-6); D (12-6, 3-1 in 7A-6).
