Tampa Catholic books Saladino Final spot with comeback

Crusaders reliever Christian Serralles celebrates his tournament-leading fourth save as Tampa Catholic rallied for a 5-4 Saladino semifinal win against Sickles.

Story by Chuck Frye, Senior Staff Writer
Photos by Mike Camunas, Creative Director

TAMPA – Trust and believe.

Every athlete in team sports has that as a credo. Lean on and depend on your teammate and they’ll do the same for you. But that theory was severely tested in Wednesday night’s Saladino Gold Division semifinal.

Both Tampa Catholic and host Sickles were atypically anemic with the leather, combining for seven errors, but that did not shake the faith in either squad. When the game returned to its expected high level of execution, it was the visiting Crusaders that came through to take a come-from-behind 5-4 victory and punch their ticket to University of Tampa and Thursday night’s championship game.

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Tampa Catholic sophomore DJ Ford eyes down the plate before scoring in the fifth inning.

Now 13-1, Tampa Catholic will face Bloomingdale, a 2-0 victor over Gaither in the other semi played at Plant City.

“I just put my trust in my defense every out, every single pitch,” said TC lefty starter Blake Brown. “I knew they’d make the big plays when I needed them. If I do my job, everything will come out good and we’ll get a good result.”

Tampa Catholic junior starting pitcher Blake Brown

That faith held after the Gryphons (11-5) took the lead in the bottom of the second inning when No. 9 hitter Gavin McCaffrey’s two-out gap-shot double scored Charlie Martz (single), and even after a third frame where two Crusader errors directly led to runs.

Tampa Catholic huddles before the fourth inning.

“We had a couple of mishaps but that’s going to happen,” explained Tampa Cathoic head coach Paul Russo Jr. “I said in the meeting before the fourth inning just to calm down and clean up the mistakes. We’ve got 12 outs left on offense, let’s make something happen here.”

Sickles senior Charlie Martz scored the game’s first run.

As it turned out, it only took two of those outs for the Crusaders to flip the script. After Jack Smythe lofted a sacrifice fly to score courtesy runner Jonathan Hall (catcher Cole Bitman walked with Hall taking third on an errant pickoff throw), Brown, Jayden Mera, and Christian Serralles got back-to-back-to-back base hits to narrow the Gryphons lead to one.

A strikeout threatened to end the rally there but Ty Fraga had different plans.

“My first at-bat (a swinging strikeout) wasn’t good so I had to work on my mindset,” explained the junior rightfielder. “The past couple of weeks, my mindset has gotten better and I’ve done better.”

Tampa Catholic’s (@TCBASEBALL_27) Ty Fraga (@fraga_ty64591) talks to @FryeChuck after the Crusader’s 5-4 win, and Fraga’s 2 RBI night, over @SHSGryphonsBB to reach the #Saladino26 final vs #Bloomingdale at @UTampaBaseball Thursday night at 7. @813Preps pic.twitter.com/3YkcdZkd61

— Mike Camunas (@MikeCamunas) March 19, 2026

Recent history held true as Fraga drove a hot grounder into leftfield to bring in Mera and Serralles and give his squad a lead it wouldn’t lose.

When asked of the comeback, Russo said: “Did it surprise me? No. It was good to see.”

Zach Dial jogs home scoring in the sixth on a balk called on the pitcher.

The Crusaders added a fifth-inning run when speedster D.J. Ford (single, stolen base, balk) scored on a fielding error, but with half the game left to play, execution would be key. TC did its part.

Sickles got an opposite-field double from catcher Emilio Salgado to start the fifth inning with the senior moving to third on a ground out. Nick Grannis punched a line drive to leftfield that looked deep enough to deliver Salgado but Ford had other plans. Taking two crow hops, Ford unleashed a perfect laser to the plate, placed so well that catcher Bitman didn’t have to move his glove as Salgado slid into it for the inning-ending double play.

“It’s weird with us not playing the county schools all the time. We don’t get all that experience on (other team’s) fields,” Russo said. “Once the guys figured out the field, the defense just gets better and better and better.”

Gryphons runner Charlie Martz is tagged out at the plate by Tampa Catholic C Cole Bitman after a precision throw from 3B Torey Thomas.

It happened again in the sixth. After a balk scored Zack Dial (walk) and closed the gap to one, Charlie Martz (hit by pitch, sac bunt, balk) looked to scurry home on pinch hitter Noah Gonzalez’s infield chopper off closer Serralles. But third baseman Torey Thomas not only broke well on the ball but he judged the bounces perfectly, quickly grabbing the ball and feeding Bitman to nip Martz at the plate.

Sickles SP Ben Durda

“We told (starter) Ben (Durda) early on that he’s never thrown 100 pitches in his life but (Wednesday) might be that night,” said Gryphons head coach Eric Luksis. “He competed well and got some big outs in big spots but his defense didn’t help him out at times.

“It was a 5-4 game and we know four runs wasn’t going to be enough to win the game. We’ll learn from these mistakes and get better for it, hopefully, as we make our second-half run.”

And Brown summed things up well from the winner’s side: “We just believe in each other and come out with the win. That’s all that matters.”