Early offense leads Jesuit to second-straight Saladino Title

Jesuit junior Catcher Vincent DeCarlo hoists the Saladino Tournament trophy to cheers from his fellow Tigers. 

Story by Jarrett Guthrie, Editor
Photos by Mike Camunas, Creative Director

TAMPA – The lights were bright once again for Hillsborough County baseball’s midseason crown jewel – the annual Saladino Baseball Tournament championship – as Jefferson and Jesuit squared off for the tourney’s 43rd finale.

Click here for our photo gallery from this game.

But quickly the Tigers offense gleamed in the glow of the stadium bulbs of the University of Tampa Baseball Field, and Jesuit piled 10 runs on the Dragons in the first three innings, and cruised to a 12-3 win, the second-straight and fifth overall, title.

“It’s really cool going back-to-back,” senior Noah Sheffield said, “not a lot of our guys have been here, so it was cool to help them continue on that tradition. And, hopefully next year they can continue it (again).”

Catcher Vincent DeCarlo played his part from the start, ending the top of the first by blocking a ball in the dirt, recovering it in front of the plate and firing a throw to third baseman Dean Spoto to catch a stealing runner.

Jefferson’s Isiah Fernandez dives back into first base after walking in the first inning. 

The junior continued his impact quickly, leading off the home-half with a single lined into center – the first of his three-hit night.

“We have different kinds of teams every year,” the Tigers catcher said. “Sometimes we’re a power team, sometimes we’re not, but one thing about this team that’s come up a lot is that if we score early, we are not going to lose.”

“Score early” was exactly what Jesuit (8-2) did, getting on the board a few batters later when Jack Clark sent a skipping single into left field to drive in the first run. Clark, who finished the tournament 7-for-13 over the last week, including a 2-for-2, two-run scoring showing in the final, was named tournament Most Valuable Player.

Jack Clark is cheered by his teammates after being named the tournament MVP

“This has been a great week playing … five games straight,” Clark said, “it doesn’t get much better than that. Out here with the boys, we kind of struggled with the bats the first few games, but we sat down and figured it out.

“We knew we had to move the chains, keep the bats going, and it worked out for us.”

Jesuit’s Jack Clark scores one of his two runs in the Tigers win.

Jesuit added a second and third run in the first as Sheffield scored on an error and Clark crossed on a wild pitch. The Tigers put the game out of reach in its next at-bats as DeCarlo doubled in a run, Sheffield (ground-rule to left) did the same, and Jacob Lozano rounded out the five-run second with a single into right.

“(We) tried to hit everything up the middle,” Sheffield said of his team’s approach at the plate. “Clearly, their pitcher wasn’t going to over-power us, so we ran into some to left field, some to right field. It was a good approach.”

Jesuit senior Noah Sheffield did his part to help the Tigers win the tournament, driving in a run on a ground-rule double, and scoring twice.

Sheffield, who had a few defensive miscues in Jesuit’s earlier tourney games, finished his tournament strongly at second base with a highlight-reel, diving stop and dart to first from his knees to end a Dragons’ threat in the sixth after KJ Sampson singled and an error allowed a second baserunner.

“It meant a lot to make a play for my team, and get out of the inning,” the FSU commit said. “Our pitchers were working hard, so (I needed to) just get in the flow of making plays. That’s all I could want.”

Jefferson (9-2) was on tilt early, as starting pitcher Cameron Copple was driven from the mound in the second inning, and Sampson would move to the bump from third, going the remainder of the way.

Dragons senior captain Cameron Mallo makes a sliding play on a ball at shortstop.

The Dragons battled back after a 6-2, pool-play loss to Bloomingdale on Monday to win games over Wharton and Tampa Catholic to reach the final, and didn’t wilt on Thursday night despite the large deficit, putting up a three-run fourth as walks and a self-inflicted error on Jesuit starting pitcher McCall Biemiller gave Jefferson a spark.

Jefferson senior Alliuq Troupe singled and scored for the Dragons.

Alliuq Troupe’s single into right in the inning was the only one the Florida-signed Biemiller would allow, but the Dragons clawed out runs first on a bases loaded comebacker the pitcher fielded and fired to the backstop trying for the force at the plate, and next on a wild pitch. A third run would be credited to the Tigers starter on a walk issued by Keane Hyer, before Kaden Waechter took over and closed the game out recording the final 10 outs, allowing just one more hit.

Biemiller would be the beneficiary of his offense’s outpouring, earning his second win of the tourney, and third win on the season.

Jesuit senior McCall Biemiller earned his third win of the season. 

The Tigers were the only team to go undefeated (5-0) in the tournament’s Gold Division six-day slate, which included wins against Newsome, Strawberry Crest, Leto and Lennard, doing so while having to keep up in the classroom with the school’s spring break falling last week, while the public schools were off this week.

DeCarlo, who was making his second Saladino championship appearance after going 1-for-1 with two walks in last year’s victory against Sickles, spoke on the grind and made a point to acknowledge tournament founder Tony Saladino after his team’s victory.

Tournament founder and Hillsborough County baseball icon Tony Saladino enjoying the 43rd edition of the Saladino Tournament championship game (photo by Mike Camunas).

“It’s a little tiring, for sure,” DeCarlo said. “We played five games straight, without a lot of sleep. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m sure you could talk to any guy on our team and they all would say the same thing. And we want to say, ‘thank you,’ to Mr. Saladino for that, for giving us this opportunity. It’s really exciting to come out her and compete with these other great teams in our county.”

Zane Pestalozzi drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, and scored a run on a Will Burke single in the sixth, and DeCarlo added one last pop – a line drive single to center to score his team’s final run.

Jefferson’s KJ Sampson worked parts of five innings on the mound. 

Sampson battled in his relief appearance, allowing his defense to work behind him, finishing with 4 1/3 innings on the mound and three earned runs on four hits, and turned in a beautiful double play, getting his glove to a rocket back to the mound and firing to third to double-up a runner.

But it was the Tigers pitching that kept Jefferson off rhythm at the plate, with Waechter striking out four and only allowing the one hit, while picking up his second save.

Sophomore Kaden Waechter earned a three-inning save, allowing just one hit and striking out four. 

Jesuit, which dropped two of its first three games, has fired off seven straight and will look to continue that next Wednesday with a visit to Mitchell.

“We knew that we were going to figure it all out at some point,” Clark said of the run after those early losses. “But we wanted the chemistry, we wanted to figure it out together. Some guys were focused on one part, and others on another, so when we came together it’s started to click now, midseason, and that’s all we could ask for.”

Jefferson will start a three-game stretch at home next Tuesday, with a ceremony honoring Dragons’ players from the 1970s, prior to the game against King High.

⚾

Jesuit 12, Jefferson 3

Jef 000|300|0 – |3|2|3
Jes 253|002|x – |12|9|3
W – M. Biemiller (3-0); L – Copple; S – Weachter (2)
2B – DeCarlo, Sheffield (Jes). Records – Jef (9-2); Jes (8-2).

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