Leto building for the future, but take district win in the now

Story & photos by Chuck Frye, Staff Writer

TAMPA — Throughout Saturday afternoon, J.J. Pizzio’s dialogue was pointed.

“I’d like one guy to show up today” was a common mantra from Pizzio to his Leto roster, mixed among other comments. That this was coming in the midst of an eight-run opening surge against host Hillsborough en route to a 10-5 victory made it more eye-opening but the purpose was certainly valid.

Click here for our photo gallery from this game.

“I think my approaches, my style is that you play for seven innings and you play seven innings,” Pizzio explained. “Your game has to stay consistent no matter what the score is and what the situations are. That way, when it’s a 5-4 game in the bottom of the seventh, it’s the same thing that you had before when it was 8-0. You should just be playing baseball.”

The rewards have been spotty for Pizzio and the Falcons this year — moving to 6-10 this year and 2-1 in Class 6A-9 play with this win — but it’s not totally about 2023 to the mentor.

“We don’t have to win every game. I just want to compete, and I think with the plan we have, it’s going to work out pretty good,” he said.

That plan will tie up a lot of Pizzio’s time.

“Ninety-five percent of these guys are committed to me for the rest of this season, all of the summer — they have a travel team together, and all of the fall — we’re prepared to do a bunch of the college tournaments — where we’ll have predominantly (rising) juniors and two (rising) seniors,” Pizzio explained. “So, we’ll pretty much have the same group the next two-to-three years. It’s just a matter of buying in, becoming men, and that means I have to do my job.”

His vision bore fruit against his alma mater quickly as the first seven Falcon batters reached base in a game-defining opening inning. Sophomore Isaiah Quinonez (two hits) raked an RBI double followed by a run-scoring single from classmate Caleb Rodriguez (two hits including a double). A wild pitch, a bases-loaded hit batter (senior Anthony Montoya, who also added a pair of safeties) and Alejandro Santos’ sacrifice fly completed the salvo.

Production continued in a three-run second as sophomore starting pitcher Arley Duran delivered the key blow, driving a hard grounder through a drawn-in Terrier infield to plate Quinonez (walk) and Rodriguez (hit by pitch).

However, some wildness from Duran allowed Hillsborough (now 7-11, 3-2 in 6A-9) to stay in range. Two hit batters and two walks got the Terriers on the board in the bottom of the second while his pitch count ended his afternoon after three frames.

“He battled through it, he got some help behind him, and, of course, we scored a bunch of runs,” said Pizzio. “He threw some pretty good games against Gaither and a couple of other teams, but you’ve got to go out and you’ve got to work all the time. Everyone’s trying to beat you.”

Strong defense came from junior shortstop Denzel Martinez (who “kills us every time he plays,” said Terriers head coach Bryan Burgess) and Santos at second base.

Hillsborough nicked the Falcons’ bullpen for a fourth-inning run on freshman No. 9 batter Uriah Bullock’s RBI single, then added a three-run home run from junior DH Nelson Arbolaez in the fifth.

“I called (Uriah) over when he had two strikes, let him know we can’t have a strikeout and he peppered the ball through the right side of the infield,” Burgess said. “That’s how you stay on the field whether you’re a freshman or a senior. You take what the coaches tell you, apply it in a game and keep fighting.”

Unfortunately for Hillsborough, Leto did just that as well, as the top of the fifth saw sophomore Fabian Torres lash a deep blast over the leftfield fence to plate courtesy runner Juba Lassiter (in for reliever Montoya who singled) and cap Leto’s scoring. It was the only scoring junior reliever J.J. Shipherd yielded over five strong innings for the Terriers.

“I went out on a limb and promised (Fabian) that if he used this approach (to drive high pitches) that he was going to get thrown, I guaranteed him it would be out of here. I got lucky,” Pizzio said with a laugh. “And now maybe they’ll listen some more.

“I knew that we would struggle because we have a really young team but it’s not affecting our approach. We haven’t, scoreboard-wise, won a bunch of games but we’ve got some guys getting some good experience and looking forward to their future.”

Experience and preparation for younger players was also a familiar sentiment in the home dugout.

“We don’t have a deep bench, and sometimes the best motivator is a deep bench,” said Burgess, who played 13 underclassmen and no seniors against Leto. “We should probably try to have some of the younger guys a little more ready to go and see what comes in for us. We don’t lose anyone (from this roster) and we’re going to be senior- and junior-heavy (going forward). We’ll battle with the guys we’ve got.”

⚾⚾⚾⚾

Leto 10, Hillsborough 5

L  530|020|0 – |10|10|1
H 010|130|0 – |5|5|0
W – Duran; L – Arroyo; S – Rodriguez-Molina
2B – Quinonez, Rodriguez-Molina (L); HR – Torres (L); Arbolaez (H). Records – L (6-10); H (7-11).