Crusaders score early, hold off Carrollwood Day
Tampa Catholic senior Alex Sotiropoulos struck out eight across five scoreless innings as the Crusaders defeated Carrollwood Day.
By Mike Camunas, Creative Director
TAMPA – Now is not the time to push any panic buttons.
Tampa Catholic isn’t about to, neither is Carrollwood Day.
Even after the Crusaders handed the Patriots its first loss of the season — a 6-4 win that was even closer than the score indicates.
“There’s never panic buttons to push — if I panic, everyone else panics,” Tampa Catholic coach Paul Russo, Jr. said. “Obviously, I have a lot of faith in these guys, but at the end of the day, you gotta remind them, it’s not a walk in the park, regardless of what the score is, you have to finish the game.”
Tampa Catholic’s Carson Arnold stands on first base after one of his two hits in the game. The junior scored twice in the win.
“You can’t win every game,” Carrollwood Day coach Tony Brewington said. “I like how this team fought back and got a little momentum at the end, but it was a little too late.
“We have to make adjustments and we will.”
Click here for a few more photos from this game.
The Patriots (11-1), who reeled off 11-straight wins that included winning the Bronze Division of the Saladino Tournament last week, had to fight back from a 6-0 deficit that the Crusaders built by the third inning, as the latter was able to knock out starter Logan Babb after just 39 pitches that yielded three runs on five hits.
Carrollwood Day starting pitcher Logan Babb.
The Crusaders tacked on three more off reliever Matt Porta, who gave up two earned runs on five hits.
Tampa Catholic (8-4) starter, senior righty Alex Sotiropoulos, helped his own cause by driving in two runs with a double and scoring a run as well, while Cal Johnson, Jose Carrero, Lucas Cinnante and Daniel Smythe all drove in a run a piece.
Crusaders junior Cal Johnson was 3-for-4 with a double and RBI.
But Sotiropoulos was also dominant on the mound, throwing 72 pitches over five scoreless innings, allowing just two hits, striking out eight and walking a batter.
“I tip my hat off to their pitcher,” Brewington said without hesitation, “because he was straight dealing tonight against us.”
Carrollwood Day reliever Matthew Porta.
Russo said Sotiropoulos was pulled because his workload over the past couple of weeks, including a start in the Saladino Tournament last week, had been heavy and the coach aims to get each player 10 days off throughout the season.
“It’s a long season,” Russo added. “We don’t want his arm to get tired.”
The Crusaders saw Vito Arena get an out in the sixth, but then Drew Dunlop would give up two runs in his 2/3 inning of relief, as Nick Bonollo and Ethan Heintz would drive in runs.
Patriots senior Ethan Heintz takes off from first base.
“That game shouldn’t have been close,” Russo said. “That’s how I felt the last couple innings. Once Sot came out of the game, it didn’t seem like our guys were ready to go.”
It became even more of a nail-biter in the seventh inning, as Rueben Ledo came in to pitch and needed 35 pitches to get out of several jams and secure the win.
Tampa Catholic junior Jose Carrero.
In fact, after a Bonollo sac fly and Julian Earle driving in another run, Nick Riedel, with his .367 average, would come to the plate as the go ahead run, though Ledo would get him out swinging to end the game.
“First thing is we have to remain competitive and remain ourselves,” Brewington said. “The great thing is we get another chance tomorrow night to do it all over again.”
Russo was frustrated his team allowed Carrollwood Day to get into a position to possibly win the game.
“Obviously, they’re ranked pretty high in the rankings, even though I don’t think (the players) sat on (that team) at all,” Russo said. “Listen, regardless if you’re 5A, 6A, 7A, 3A, 2A, 1A and you put together 11 wins in a row, you’re doing something right, and coach Brewington has done a great job.
“At the end of the day that game shouldn’t’ve been that close.”
Tampa Catholic catcher Ethan Frame and Alex Sotiropoulos celebrate the end of an inning.
#8 Tampa Catholic 6, #2 Carrollwood Day 4
C 000|002|2 – |4|7|1
T 033|000|x – |6|11|1
W – Sotiropoulos; L – Babb
2B – Heintz (C); Johnson, Sotiropoulos (T). Records – C (11-1); T (8-4).
