Baseball wins and advances to regional semifinals! Read all about it below in the Naples Daily News: Seacrest Country Day made history once again — this time around it came on the baseball diamond. The Stingrays captured their first regional win in school history, with an 11-1 victory over Bradenton-Manatee HEAT in the class 2A regional quarterfinals at Seacrest on Thursday. With the victory, Seacrest (18-8) advances to the regional semifinals, where they will play at Sarasota Christian next Tuesday. After three trips to regionals in the last four years, the Stingrays finally got over the hump. “I’m really proud of the kids and all the hard work they’ve put in to get there,” Seacrest head coach Mark Marsala said. “People counted us out before they even started and they’ve done nothing but overachieve all year.” The 10-run rule came into effect in the bottom of the sixth as the Stingrays rushed to the field to celebrate their historic win. Sophomore Tyler Lopes tossed all six innings for Seacrest, allowing only one hit and one run in the win. Lopes, a transfer from Evangelical Christian, also struck out three batters and drove home a run on a sacrifice fly. Bradenton-Manatee HEAT (6-21) went ahead in the opening inning with a two-out RBI single by senior third baseman Andrew Ditchfield. However, Seacrest rallied back in the third with four runs. Outfielder Pedro Legrand laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line to advance Howie Jordan which sparked the Stingrays. After a David DiNorcia and a Matthew DiNorcia sacrifice fly, Josue Rivera ripped a double to right field, scoring two Seacrest base runners. “We showed some rust early, but in the third inning we started picking it up and we played really good baseball from there,” Marsala said. “Our pitching and defense was outstanding.” Legrand added an RBI single in the fourth, while eighth-grader Colin Breuer belted a double into the center field gap putting Seacrest ahead 6-1. “They are determined to keep going. For the last two months, we’ve played three games every week and we got into a great rhythm because of it,” Marsala said. “Now we have a week in between games, so they’re trying to find things to do.” To say Seacrest fields a young team is an understatement. Marsala’s group is made up of only one senior in Legrand, while three eighth graders, two ninth graders and a 10th grader are starters. “We’re going to need a much stronger effort to get to the next round. It’s going to be a tough battle no question against Sarasota Christian,” Marsala said. “Overall I’m really happy with what they’re doing and the progress they’re making. Who knows how far these guys can go?”
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 10:41:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015