Carrollwood Day wins toe-to-toe tilt with Seffner Christian

Carrollwood Day sophomore SS JD Howard (#1) leaps up in celebration with Patriots RF Christian Clarke after the latter caught his third fly ball of the 11th inning to seal CDS’ 5-4, extra-inning win in the 2A-10 District Championship. 

By Jarrett Guthrie, Editor

CARROLLWOOD – Carrollwood Day was not to be denied in Thursday’s 2A-10 district final, but man, did Seffner Christian try.

After the Patriots stretched out a two-run lead, the Crusaders answered – forcing extra innings. When CDS scored two in the eighth, so too did SCA in the home-half. It stretched on like that until the 11th inning, when Carrollwood Day turned to small ball, putting the pressure on the Crusaders only to have an error allow a runner to third, which setup JD Howard to play hero with an RBI bunt single to the pitcher as CDS pulled off a 5-4 victory to claim its first district title since 2018.

“Being out here with my guys – my brothers – and playing hard to get this win, it just feels great,” Howard said. “The whole team put the ball in play, played small ball, got it done in the field. I got that run in – but this was a whole-team effort.”

JD Howard sends this RBI bunt back toward the mound, driving in the deciding run in the 11th.

Had a single and squeeze to score the go ahead run in last nights district championship in the 11th inning. My teammates are truly my brothers and it was a great team win! @baseball_cds @CDS_Athletics @T_Brew11 @R3_Baseball @813Preps @FLVarsityRivals @Biggamebobby @PG_Uncommitted pic.twitter.com/22KtPDlvya

— JD Howard (@JDHoward07) May 3, 2024

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After lightning delayed the game’s start for over an hour, Carrollwood Day (23-5) got on the board in the second when Nick Riedel opened up with a double ground down the left-field line, followed by a Steven Vargo single. With two in scoring position, senior JT Fuller squeezed home the game’s first run with a bunt.

JT Fuller jumps up for a chest bump with Ethan Heintz after sac bunting in the Patriots first run.

Howard (2-for-5) singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch in the fifth inning to stretch the Patriots lead.

Carrollwood Day junior righty Nick Riedelstruck out nine in 6 1/3 innings on the mound.

Riedel worked with the lead on the mound, holding Seffner Christian (18-5) to one hit in his 6 1/3 innings. That hit came in the home-fifth when Evan Scallon made a leadoff error hurt, scoring a run with a single lined into center.

Riedel would work into the seventh before a walk and another error behind him chased him from the game.

“(Nick) wanted the rock,” Patriots head coach Tony Brewington said. “He’s been our horse all year. The team believes in him, they get behind him, and he deserves to pitch in this type of game. I’m proud of him.”

Scallon would again come through – this time with a bases-loaded walk to tie the game in the seventh and force extras.

Seffner Christian’s Evan Scallon is fired up as his bases-loaded walk scored Ethan Duncan to tie the game in the seventh. 

Vargo sent a ball out of the reach of the Crusaders leftfielder and motored around for a two-run, inside-the-park home run to put the Patriots ahead momentarily in the eighth.

“We live for these moments,” Vargo said. “Everyone talks about playoff baseball and it’s just a different level of baseball.”

Steven Vargo spikes his helmet after booking it around the bases and scoring on an inside-the-park home run. 

But the Crusaders answered in the bottom-half, Garrett Morgan singled and Addy Scott tripled to right to bring Morgan in. SCA then evened the score when Ethan Duncan’s sac fly went to left to bring in Scott.

“(Seffner Christian was) a great opponent and I didn’t expect anything less,” Brewington said. “Did I expect the game to go that deep? No. But I definitely expected both teams to compete, and that’s just what we did. This was a great championship game.”

Crusaders senior Addy Scott watches his RBI triple sail into right field. 

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Crusaders senior Garrett Morgan showed off that catcher SPEED, scoring from first on Scott’s triple.

Duncan worked seven innings from the mound for the Crusaders allowing two runs in a no-decision, finishing with five hits allowed, three walks and six strikeouts.

Seffner Christian senior Ethan Duncan struck out six in his seven innings on the mound.

Starting in late March, Vargo found himself in a bit of a slump, picking up just one hit across six games, but the junior has since gone a six-game hit streak including Thursday’s three-hit performance.

“Steven Vargo came up big tonight,” Brewington said. “It doesn’t matter what you did all season once you get to the postseason, everyone starts 0-0 and you get a fresh start. He’s swung a hot bat for us (in the district tournament), coming through with clutch at-bats.”

Steven Vargo picks up one of his three hits in Thursday’s game. 

The game looked destined to end in a fourth-straight district title for SCA, when Kris Colondres laced a on triple to left in the ninth and stood 90 feet away with one out. But Fuller, the Patriots senior first baseman had other plans inching forward expecting a bunt, then diving to make a catch and firing a dart to third base to double-off Colondres.

“We work on that in practice a lot, it’s a set play and we go through the situation probably 20 times, almost every practice,” Fuller said. “It worked out perfectly. I saw where the ball was going, dove after it, then saw the runner was caught and got him at third.”

First baseman JT Fuller fires a throw to third to complete a double-play and squash a Crusaders rally attempt. 

Fuller was making just his third start at first base in the last 10 games, and Brewington said his senior wanted an opportunity and proved he was up for the challenge.

“An athletic senior stepped up and made a big play,” Brewington said. “This was a big game start that he wanted and I gave it to him, and he stepped up.”

Seffner would turn a double play in the 10th, but offensively couldn’t make anything of two runners aboard in the home-half.

Seffner Christian’s Kris Colondres fires up his dugout after his triple in the ninth. 

The decisive production would come for CDS in the top of 11, as Wyatt Weston placed a bunt toward the third base side and beat out the throw, while Morgan sprung out from behind the plate to get the ball, but the senior catcher’s throw was offline allowing the runner to advance two more bases, which put Weston in position to score on the Howard bunt.

Gabe Troya, who took over on the mound for the Patriots in the ninth, held the Crusaders to just one hit, and finished off the game with three pop-fly outs to right fielder Christian Clarke.

Carrollwood junior Gabe Troya sends his glove flying after the final catch was made to seal the Patriots 2A-10 championship.

Class 2A-10 Championship

Carrollwood Day 5, #5 Seffner Christian 4 (11)