Newsome withstands Bulls comeback bid

By Bob Bellone
Senior Staff Writer

VALRICO – Newsome built a six-run lead midway through Tuesday’s non-district clash at Bloomingdale and held off the defending state champions for a 6-5 victory.

Ethan McSpadden led the visiting Wolves with three of their six hits, highlighted by a bases-clearing triple, and drove in four runs.

Bloomingdale starting pitcher Tephen Montgomery was perfect through two innings, striking out four. The senior right-hander didn’t make it through the third, however, when Newsome scored four times with some help.

Nicholas Balasco drew a leadoff walk, and eventual winning pitcher Ryan Spitzer advanced him on a sacrifice bunt. An infield hit by Evan Dempsey followed an error to set the stage for McSpadden, whose sinking line drive eluded lunging right fielder Jack Owens. Another infield error followed to make it 4-0.

“You could definitely see the energy in the dugout,” McSpadden said. “We peaked at that point of the game.”

The Wolves scored another pair in the fourth, capitalizing on three consecutive walks to start the inning and a McSpadden single.

Newsome coach Dick Rohrberg, without the services of three key starters – Matt Giles (fever), Tony Marrero (broken hand) and Lucas Phelps (torn hamstring) – stuck with his usual game plan.

“I’m a firm believer in moving runners, playing small baseball and hopefully put pressure on,” Rohrberg said. “They didn’t field a bunt one time, and I think they had a miscommunication on something else. That can lead to a big inning, and fortunately for us it did.”

Bloomingdale cut the deficit to 6-4 with two runs each in the fourth and fifth innings, both times with a walk followed by back-to-back singles.

Colby Shelton started and finished strong offensively for the Bulls, leading off the first with a single and hitting his second home run of the season, a solo blast to left center in the seventh. The senior shortstop also walked and scored twice.

“I’m proud of them for fighting back,” Bloomingdale coach Kris Wilken said. “They played hard the last few innings and kept chipping away and chipping away, but it was just too much in the end to come back from.”

Both teams have non-district road games set for Thursday evening, when Bloomingdale (13-9) travels to Sickles, and Newsome (14-5) visits East Bay.

⚾⚾⚾⚾

Newsome 6
(7) Bloomingdale 5

N 004|200|0 – |6|5|0
B 000|230|1 – |5|7|4
W – Spitzer (2-0); L – Chappell (0-2); S – Carroll (1)
2B – Peterson (N); Rossi (B); 3B – McSpadden (N); HR – Shelton (B). Records – N (14-5); B (13-9).