Tuesday night wasn’t the kindest to Strawberry Crest’s baseball and softball teams, as both took 2-0 losses to Riverview at home.
Crest’s baseball team performed well defensively and pitchers Eli Garner and Kade Manderscheid combined for seven innings, six strikeouts, six hits and two runs (one earned) allowed. But it was an off day for the offense, which picked up two hits on the evening from Ben Pues and Jacob Heath. The team will get back into district play tonight at Wharton, hoping to avoid a third consecutive loss.
The softball team had better luck on offense, racking up a total of six hits between Lexi Fox (two hits), Keelyn Johnson, Sydney Watson, Kacey Fultz and Emma Cooper. The Chargers’ pitchers, Watson and Alyssa Grimes, also gave up just four hits to the Sharks. But Riverview’s pitching and defense was able to get itself out of jam after jam, and the offense took advantage of getting walked nine times to score in the third and seventh innings. Crest has now lost five of its last six games heading into tonight’s district game at Wharton.
Durant’s baseball and softball teams picked up a pair of wins at East Bay. On the softball side, the Cougars picked up a 5-1 win driven by the offense’s 16-hit outing at the plate and extended their winning streak to three games. The baseball team found itself on the winning side of a 13-10 thriller in Gibsonton, rallying back from a 3-0 deficit in the fourth inning and surviving a comeback attempt that led to five East Bay runs scoring in the sixth. It was their second consecutive win.
Both Cougars teams are playing at home tonight, hosting Armwood to try and keep the win streaks alive.
Plant City’s teams also kept their lengthy win streaks alive at Bloomingdale Tuesday night. The softball team picked up a 3-0 win over the Bulls, scoring all three runs in the sixth, thanks in part to big games from Rylee Moorman (3-for-4, one run) and Ashley Blessin (one hit, one walk, 16 strikeouts). The baseball team didn’t have it quite as easy but came through in the clutch for a 2-1 come-from-behind win. Down 1-0 for nearly five innings, Jarod Wingo and Cade Shissler each drove in runs in the seventh inning (Wingo and Mario Williams scored) and Tyler Dowdy picked up the win with flawless pitching in the last two innings.
Neither Plant City team has lost a game since March, and they’ll both look to keep it that way when hosting East Bay tonight.