Spotted early lead, Fraga, Crusaders hold off Raiders

Tampa Catholic’s Jayden Mera slides in before Plant City catcher Paul Overstreet can make the tag, scoring the third run on an error in the first inning. The Crusaders made the Raiders mistake hold up as TC claimed a 4-2 victory.

By Jarrett Guthrie, Editor

PLANT CITY – Tampa Catholic junior Ty Fraga welcomed any help his opponents were willing to give his team. Tuesday afternoon, the righty took to the mound and shook off a leadoff single by Plant City’s Alex Rodriguez – leaving the Raiders sophomore standing on third to close out the inning.

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Atop the mound for the Raiders, a daunting figure in 6-foot-6 fireballing righty Jake Carbaugh was as advertised, striking out nine in his 5 2/3 innings. But unfortunately for the Mississippi State signee it would be one mistake that would prove costly, as Tampa Catholic loaded the bases and a weakly hit ball to the pitcher’s right saw Carbaugh sail a throw to first and allow the bases to clear and Tampa Catholic never looked back, taking a 4-2 victory and picking up a second win in Saladino Tournament Gold Division pool-play action.

Crusaders senior Cole Bitman got his team going in the first with this one-out double to leftfield.

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Tampa Catholic junior Ty Fraga worked 6 2/3 innings to earn the win.

“I knew our team was going to back me up, and (after taking the lead) I went out with all the confidence in the world,” Fraga said.

Fraga mixed his pitches well, and the Crusaders defense was sound in support as the righty made it through 6 2/3 innings, struck out three and allowed two earned runs, before being lifted for Christian Serralless who got a fly ball to right to end the game.

“This is my first time in this tournament,” Fraga said, “and it’s been really fun so far. I’m excited to see how far we can go, but we are ready to win this thing.”

A fourth-inning walk to Plant City’s Max Cieslo turned into the Raiders first run, after he had stolen second base and then scored on a Keegan Wilkerson single up the middle.

Plant City’s Max Cieslo slides in under TC catcher Cole Bitman’s tag in the fourth inning.

But Tampa Catholic (12-1) got the run back in the sixth with Torey Thomas singling to third, advancing on a throwing error before scoring on a wild pitch.

Parker Scott’s seventh inning RBI line drive single to right cut the deficit to two runs, but Serralles picked up his second save of the tournament needing just two pitches to induce a fly ball to rightfielder Blake Brown and end the game.

Plant City starting pitcher Jake Carbaugh pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowed one earned run and struck out nine.

Raiders head coach Mark Persails was appreciative of his starting pitcher Carbaugh, and credited him for his resilience after the first inning error gave TC the lead.

“Excellent job bouncing back there,” he said. “You have a PFP (pitcher’s fielding practice) ball that you throw down the leftfield line, give them three runs and that could be kind of deflating.

“But he didn’t let it bother him and the team tried to scrap, come back in it, but sometimes you hit the ball and it’s right at them … hey sometimes you lose a good baseball game.”

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Tampa Catholic 4
Plant City 2

P 000|100|1 – |2|4|2
T 300|001|x – |4|6|0
W – Fraga (0-0); L – J. Carbaugh (2-3); S – Serralles (2)
2B – Bitman (T); 3B – Beauchaine (T). Records – T (11-1); P (10-5).

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