Glassford stands tall, Wolves think small in title win

By Jarrett Guthrie, Editor

LITHIA – Small ball execution proved pivotal as Newsome’s precision squaring up the baseball scratched out a pair of runs, while senior JP Glassford was dominant from the hill pitching a complete-game shutout and leading the Wolves to a second-straight district championship, 2-0 over Plant City in Class 7A-7.

Click here for more photos from this game.

Glassford started the game with a strikeout and went 91 pitches, fanning 11 and giving up just four hits to earn his seventh win of the season.

Plant City senior RHP Brenham Hay pitched six innings, allowing one earned run on three hits and struck out three. 

Plant City (16-12) senior Brenham Hay held the Wolves to just three hits, but one of his four walks hurt him in the third inning.

Newsome senior Anthony DeVito drops down a squeeze bunt to get the Wolves on the board in the third inning.

In the home-third, sophomore Aiden Smitson watched four pitches go by to lead off the inning, then took second on a wild pitch and moved up a base on an Alec Chin groundout. Anthony DeVito, who had picked up a single in the first inning, squared on the second pitch of his next at bat and dropped a dribbler just to the left-hand side of the pitcher as Smitson was off with contact, diving across the plate as Hay flipped the ball to the catcher just a moment too late.

“You practice it every day, you practice it before the game,” senior Anthony DeVito said, “and you know it could take some small ball to win the game. I just did the job, executed the play and got the run in. That’s all we needed.”

Despite a near-perfect effort from Raiders pitcher Brenham Hay, DeVito’s bunt and Aiden Smitson’s jump off third was even better resulting in a run in the third. 

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Aiden Smitson avoids the tag of Plant City catcher Paul Overstreet scoring the deciding run in the third inning. 

Further damage was avoided however, as Raiders shortstop Alex Rodriguez started a nifty double-play to end the inning.

Plant City junior Jacob Carbaugh hollers toward his dugout after his standup double to lead off the second inning. 

An inning earlier, Plant City’s Jacob Carbaugh smoked a stand-up double down the leftfield line, but the Raiders did not have the same success with the bunt. An attempt to put Carbaugh at third resulted in a bunt popped to Glassford on the mound, before he struck the next two out to leave the runner where he was.

The Raiders got the first two aboard in the fourth when Drew Cothren (1-for-2) took a leadoff walk and Rodriguez won a footrace with Glassford on a bunt to the first baseman, but the Wolves defense came alive as third baseman Isaiah Sanchez leapt for a rocketed line drive, then fired to double off Cothren at second base, and leftfielder Kaden Aguiar ended the inning with a tremendous diving catch toward the line.

“We have a great group of guys here and defensively, I think we’re a pretty strong team,” Glassford said. “I know if I go hard for them, they are going to go hard out there on defense for me.”

Isaiah Sanchez sent a groundball single into left field to start off the fifth inning.

Newsome added on to its lead in the fifth as Sanchez singled on the ground through the left side, Smitson dropped down a picture-perfect sac bunt to move him over and Alec Chin dropped a fly ball into center to drive in the bonus run.

“Doing the little things right and executing when it’s absolutely necessary,” Smitson said, “that’s what makes the difference in games.”

Smitson gets the job done, moving the runner up a base with a sac bunt …

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… before Alec Chin adds some insurance with an RBI single lined into shallow centerfield. 

That was all Glassford needed, he worked around a Cothren single, thanks in-part to a slick 6-4-3 double play from SS DeVito to 2B Ocean Cozart to 1B Trey Bosso, then the HCC commit feeling the title in his team’s grasp, filled the zone and struck out the side to end the game.

“In the seventh inning, three outs away from a district championship, I was honestly just trying to throw it as hard as I can,” Glassford admitted. “I was trying to blow it right by them.”

“He looked absolutely dominant, like he wanted it more than anything in the world,” DeVito said of his teammate. “He just gave it his all and went back out there and got it.”

Wolves senior JP Glassford improved to 7-3 on the season, tossing a complete-game shutout, allowing four hits and striking out 11. 

The win was vindication for Glassford and the Wolves, after dropping a 2-0 decision the other way to the Raiders in the regular season – the senior pitcher taking the loss as two unearned runs cost him back in early March.

But after firing in three-straight strikes to his final batter it was all celebration – perhaps a little too much celebration for the 6-foot-4, 220-pound righty – as he tossed his glove high in the air and watched as it sailed on top of the Wolves’ dugout.

One last toss for Glassford as he sends his glove up onto the Wolves dugout after he completes his district final win with three-straight strikeouts.

Fortunately for Glassford, he had one more “good guy” backing him up as younger brother Colin made the climb to snag his glove.

“That’s my little brother, he’s a good guy,” Glassford said as Colin proudly held up the glove from atop the dugout.

Though the 19-6 Wolves have title aspirations beyond Thursday night, Newsome claiming back-to-back district titles for the first time in program history meant a lot to DeVito, a four-year varsity starter.

“It hits home,” DeVito said. “Yes, we lost two my freshman and sophomore years, but to come back and win back-to-back as a junior and senior and go out on a high note for this school is really special.”

⚾ 7A-District 7 Final ⚾

#8 Newsome 2
Plant City 0

P 000|000|0 – |0|4|0
N 001|010|0 – |2|3|0
W – Glassford (7-3); L – Hay (4-1)
2B – J. Carbaugh (P). Records – P (16-12); N (19-6).

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Newsome’s pitching staff watches starting pitcher JP Glassford go through his bullpen work.

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Plant City head coach Mark Persails

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Newsome head coach Dick Rohrberg, in his 11th season with the Wolves, and 37th season overall is set to become the Hillsborough County dean of coaching with the retirement of Jim Macaluso at the end of the 2025 season.

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Newsome 3B Isaiah Sanchez throws for an out in the first inning.

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Wolves RF Aiden Smitson brings in a catch in the first.

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Anthony DeVito sends a first-inning single up the middle into centerfield.

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Plant City junior catcher Paul Overstreet tries to catch a runner at second base. He wouldn’t get this one, but nabbed a runner later in the game.  

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Raiders freshman Alex Rodriguez was sound on defense in the game, and was 1-for-3 at the plate with a bunt single.

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Wolves senior RHP JP Glassford

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Trey Bosso sacrifices to the pitcher to move up a runner in the second inning.

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PC pitcher Brenham Hay fields the bunt cleanly and throws to first for the out.

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Raiders 1B Jacob Carbaugh takes an out himself.

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Wolves 2B OCean Cozart throws for an out in the third.

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SS Alex Rodriguez starts a double play tossing to 2B Lane Baxter for the force.

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Then Baxter throws on to first to finish out the double play.

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PC 3B Keegan Wilkerson throws for an out in the sixth.

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Wolves head coach Dick Rohrberg waits to congratulate Alec Chin when he is pulled for a pinch-runner after giving Newsome some breathing room with an RBI single in the fifth.

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Plant City’s Drew Cothren singles in the sixth.

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