Sickles’ Taylor blanks Bloomy in regular season finale
By Jarrett Guthrie, Editor
VALRICO – Sickles was looking for a spark to launch them into the postseason, and faced a challenging three-game slate in the final regular season week against a trio of perennial region qualifying opponents, culminating in the task of facing Hillsborough County’s hottest team – Bloomingdale.
But junior Jake Taylor was more than up for the challenge as the tricky lefty mixed his three pitches masterfully, his changeup baffling Bulls batters as he struck out 10 across 6 1/3 innings, and halted Bloomingdale’s 10-game win streak, 3-0 on Friday night.
“My changeup was definitely very efficient today,” Taylor said. “The tunneling was very good and it kept the batters off-balance. I don’t throw crazy hard, so that’s huge for me.”
The Gryphons rode a rollercoaster this week, scoring six runs in the seventh inning Monday to steal a 7-6 win off Dunedin at TD Ballpark (the Spring Training home of the Toronto Blue Jays), then coughed up four runs in the seventh to drop a game to Gaither on Tuesday. So, head coach Eric Luksis challenged his team to salvage the week and enter next week’s district tournament with two wins in this final week of regular-season play.
Taylor took that challenge seriously.
“I was just trying to lock in and be efficient after our tough loss to Gaither on Tuesday,” Taylor said. “I wanted to be smooth and fast and keep the energy up for the team.”
He worked the first two innings clean before Bloomingdale sophomore Mason Johnson smacked a groundball through the left side for his team’s only hit of the game.
By then however, Sickles (18-7) had given Taylor all he would need to work with.
Bloomingdale (22-4) junior Javier Navas-Hoyer (6-1, 0.77 ERA) has churned through opposing hitters this season, but on Friday he struggled to get his curveball over for strikes and Sickles hitters took notice and waited for fastballs.
After two flyball outs in the second inning, Brandon Gonzales found some grass with a single blooped to center, followed by a walk to Zach Dial and then sophomore Connor Bly worked a favorable two-ball count, before he lined a rocket to center field for an RBI ground-rule double.
“I got down two strikes and I knew (Navas-Hoyer) is a pretty good pitcher, who has been attacking and dealing this whole season,” Bly said. “He was down 2-0, I was seeing it really well from the on-deck circle to the box, I knew I was going to get a fastball there and when I did, I was ready to crush it.”
Taylor would single to start the third, eventually stole second, then scored on a hit by Emilio Salgado for some insurance, but the Bulls avoided any further damage in the inning as senior backstop Vinny Dinzeo Jr. ended the inning catching a baserunner attempting to steal second.
Taylor was hit by a pitch in the seventh, then advanced to second on an error, moved to third on a productive Jordan Yost ground out and scored on a Braden Ross sac fly.
Taylor (6-3, 1.34 ERA) scattered two walks in the fifth and one in the sixth, before two seventh inning baserunners (a dropped third strike and a fourth walk) would chase him from the game.
From there, Luksis would use strategy to finish things out, turning to righty submariner Ben Durda to strikeout Braxton Wilken, and the right-handed Bly to get the left-handed Johnson to pop out to the catcher after a seven-pitch at-bat to end the game.
“Even when I got pulled with one out, I knew Ben and Connor would do the job,” Taylor said. “They did exactly what they were asked to do.”
Bly, who battled for the save, was in awe of his teammate’s efforts on the mound after Taylor earned his sixth win of the year.
“(That was) a great outing from Jake, he’s been amazing all year,” Bly said. “… Jake has taken control in games this year, he did it again tonight and I’m really excited to see what he does for us in the postseason.”
And with the FHSAA’s new best-of-three region format, the challenge from their coach to win two-of-three this week against three strong opponents was a perfect test according to Taylor
“This shows that we can beat anyone in a series,” Taylor said. “Even if we have a horrible loss, we can still come back and find a huge dub.”
Junior Vaughn Osting pitched two innings of relief for the Bulls allowing one unearned run on no hits and striking out two.
No. 1-seed Sickles will host Largo on Tuesday in the first round of the four-team Class 6A-11 district tournament, while the top-seeded Bulls have a first-round bye in the seven-team 6A-6 and will host the winner of (5) Bartow and (4) Lakeland on Tuesday.
⚾
#6 Sickles 3
#1 Bloomingda 0
S 011|000|1 – |3|7|1
B 000|000|0 – |0|1|1
W – Taylor (6-3); L – Navas-Hoyer (6-1); S – Bly (1)
2B – Bly (S). Records – S (18-7); B (22-4).
