Water Genius of Tampa GotW: Long hooks Stingrays, as Bulls beat Sumner

Water Genius of Tampa Game of the Week:
Long hooks Stingrays, as Bulls beat Sumner

By Jarrett Guthrie, Editor

RIVERVIEW – Senior righty Luke Long said his Bloomingdale coaches had a plan heading into Tuesday’s meeting between last week’s Saladino Gold Tournament champion Bulls and the Silver Tournament champs, Sumner.

Keep the ball low in the zone, attack hitters early in counts and be wary of Stingrays top-of-lineup sluggers.

Long followed the plan to the letter, dominating Sumner’s offense as he delivered 5 1/3 scoreless innings, limited the Stingrays to just three hits and one walk, while striking out seven as Bloomingdale’s offense took control and poured it on in a 9-3 victory.

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“I had to be careful of (Sumner senior Winston) Pennant and not give him much, especially early in the game when it was closer, 2-0, 3-0,” Long said. “With one swing he can really do some damage. We had a really good game plan, we knew their hitters and I tried to execute that plan the best I could.”

Of the Stingrays first four batters in the lineup, Long struck out three of them twice – only Cameron Pacquette found any success against the Indian River State College-signed pitcher, roping a double down the leftfield line in the first before Long ended the threat with his second punchout of the inning.

Sumner senior Cameron Pacquette books it down the line on his first-inning double.

Matching up against Long for Sumner (11-6) was Stingrays ace and current county strikeout leader Ethan DeJesus. The Florida Gulf Coast signee allowed a leadoff single to Mason Johnson and issued a walk to start the game, before the Stingrays defense stranded a runner on third with a double-play.

Sumner SP Ethan DeJesus

Saul Aponte got things going for Bloomingdale (15-2) in the second, smashing a double to the centerfield wall, then advancing to third and scoring on two wild pitches, but DeJesus would strike out three in the inning.

Bulls junior Saul Aponte connects on his double to the wall in the second inning. Aponte scored twice in Bloomingdales win.

However, from the onset DeJesus struggled to get his fastball over consistently for strikes and the Bulls adjusted to his slider and turned things up. Braxton Wilken flared a single over second base for a leadoff single, then the Bulls padded the lead with an RBI two-out double from Vaughn Osting and an RBI single from Evan Plusquellic.

Bloomingdale junior Evan Plusquellic drove in a run with this RBI single to centerfield in the third inning.

In the fifth, Bloomingdale again got some two-out juice going when Cesar Campos started off a five-run frame with a double before walks, wild pitches and a two-run Payton Jennings single chased DeJesus from the game (4.2ip, 8 R, 7 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 5 K).

Cesar Campos throws up the double bull horns to his dugout as his hit sparked a five-run inning for Bloomingdale.

Long on the other hand, had complete control and confidence in his backstop Wilken, who kept his battery-mate’s buried curveball in front of him all night.

“Obviously, I had to be down there with that curve,” Long said, “no leaving the up there in the zone, and he (Wilken) was phenomenal back there. He’s a wall.”

Bloomingdale junior C Braxton Wilken settles under a pop fly for an out.

Johnson (2-for-4, two runs) would lead off the sixth with a triple and score on a wild pitch as the Bulls scored nine-unanswered.

Mason Johnson dives into third base on his sixth-inning leadoff triple.

Down to its final at-bats, Sumner would find some luck in the seventh as two errors and a wild pitch, coupled with a double from Braylon Disla (2-for-3, run) yielded three runs – the first run(s) allowed by the Bulls in 24 innings.

Stingrays sophomore Braylon Disla tries to fire up his team’s dugout as he heads down to first after his second-inning single. Disla had two of his team’s four hits (including a double) and scored one run.

Long improves to 4-1 on the season, lowered his ERA to 0.83 and leads the Bulls with 44 strikeouts in 25 1/3 innings on the mound this year.

Paired with two of last season’s All-813Preps first team pitchers, last year’s Saladino Tournament MVP Javi Navas-Hoyer and this year’s MVP Osting, Long could only smile when asked if he is comfortable being a bit under-the-radar despite a 7-1, 0.66 ERA career mark for the Bulls.

“I love it that way,” Long said. “I wouldn’t want it any other way. What’s better than letting your game talk for you. I just go out there, no matter who the opponent is, I know I’m going to be better than them.”

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#1 Bloomingdale 9
#8 Sumner 3

B 012|051|0 – |9|8|3
S 000|000|3 – |3|4|1
W – Long (4-1); L – DeJesus (6-1)
2B – Campos, Osting, Aponte (B); Disla (S); 3B – Johnson (B). Records – B (15-2); S (11-6).

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