Plant City High clinched the top seed in its district. The X-factor? Its pitching staff.
or the Plant City Raiders, everything happened to click in 2016. They’re entering the upcoming 8A-6 district tournament as the top seed, with the best overall record since 2011.
“I’d just say it’s accepting coach’s plan, all along,” pitcher Billy McKay says. “It’s just been trying to glue together. We’ve finally got the glue.”
As expected, ace-reliever hybrid McKay, who will play for the Florida Gators after this year, has put together an excellent season.
But there are also the other guys, such as Jarrett Joyner and Parker Messick, that are just as responsible for keeping opponents contained enough to get those wins.
McKay leads the way with an 0.61 ERA, six wins and two losses (as of press time), 53 strikeouts and one complete game shutout.
Joyner, who will play at Southern Wesleyan University next year, has 11 relief appearances against one start and leads the team with four saves. Of all players with at least 10 innings pitched, Joyner leads the pack with just 10 hits allowed.
Messick is putting up better numbers than most would expect from a freshman: he has an 0.89 ERA in 31.1 innings pitched, with 37 strikeouts.
Batters facing McKay or Messick are only hitting about .159, and reaching base about 25% of the time.
“I’m just trying to fill my role whenever coach wants me to pitch,” Messick says.
These are, in head coach Mike Fryrear’s words, the “three arms that have been beating everybody.”
“We’ve been doing really good this year,” McKay says. “We’ve been throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes but, mostly, we’ve been keeping runners off base. That’s what matters most.”
Take that rainy Saturday, April 2, Plant City-Durant game, in which the Cougars were looking to rebound from their early-season loss to the Raiders. McKay pitched fairly well over three innings, allowing one run on two hits, but Messick’s appearance in the fourth inning was when Plant City — which started the frame with a run scored — started to take over the game. Through three innings of his own, Messick one-hit the dangerous Durant offense and struck out five batters.
Plant City scored three runs in the top of the seventh, and Joyner pitched a shutout bottom seventh with two strikeouts to get the save to Messick’s win.
From a playoff perspective, the game was rather meaningless: Plant City had locked up the top seed before they even set foot on Cougar Path, so a loss wouldn’t have hurt the team in the standings.
But, any Plant City fan will attest, on a local level, securing that particular season sweep was a sign that this team could go places.
The players would agree. Fryrear is reluctant to make any kind of predictions at this point, but the boys believe that buying into the system he’s installed in his four years — now that the entire roster consists of Fryrear guys — is the catalyst.
“Just keeping it simple,” McKay says. “It’s a game. Have fun.”
Should the Raiders stay hot through districts, it’ll be the most fun anyone’s had in four years.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
