The 2022 baseball season kicked off on Tuesday for all three Plant City area baseball teams, with Strawberry Crest beating Osceola, Durant beating Hillsborough and Plant City getting a no-hit performance from starting pitcher Adan Longoria in their 8-0 win over Middleton.
Plant City took a 2-0 lead in the second, tacking on three more runs in the third and fifth innings, but the productive night at the plate was all a formality behind Longoria’s stellar effort on the bump. The junior right-hander struck out 16 hitters while surrendering one lone walk in the Raiders’ 8-0 victory to open the season.
At 4 p.m., Strawberry Crest opened their season at Jesuit High School where they took on Pinellas County’s Osceola High School.
In the top of the first, starting pitcher Luke Richardson surrendered one run on two hits, but would cruise through the Osceola lineup for the rest of his outing. Richardson would hold the Warriors without another hit until the fifth inning before getting the next hitter to roll over for a double play ball to Rayallen Vasquez at second base. Richardson would finish his day with five innings pitched, three hits and just one run allowed.
But despite falling into an early 1-0 hole, the Chargers wasted no time bouncing back. Crest opened the bottom half of the frame with back-to-back triples from Elijah Vickers and Ethan Pues to tie the game in just two at bats. After a hit batter and a walk, the bases were loaded for RBI singles from Vasquez and Akhil Nimmala. A sacrifice fly to left from Austin Pendino capped the four-run first for the Chargers.
“It was big,” Strawberry Crest head coach Eric Beattie said. “You come out and you’re trying to throw up a goose egg and then score first. We didn’t but we came back and answered immediately. It showed a lot from our team, the fact that they weren’t just going to lay down after getting scored on in the first inning of the season.”
Vasquez drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the third before stealing both second and third, being driven home by a triple to right center off the bat of Nimmala for his second RBI hit of the contest. Pendino followed up the triple with another sacrifice fly and Crest had extended their lead to 6-1.
The Chargers made a move to the bullpen to start the sixth inning and Osceola was able to take advantage, pushing a run across with a sacrifice fly of their own before later drawing a bases loaded walk to close the Chargers’ lead to 6-3. Zachary Redner entered the game as the Chargers’ second pitcher of the inning, eventually getting them out of the jam.
In the bottom half of the inning Crest was able to tack on some insurance with two outs. Lance Highsmith roped a triple to center before being driven home on a single to left from Vickers, who would come home to score as well on a double from Pues.
Redner remained in the contest for the seventh, shutting the door and securing the 8-3 victory for Crest.
“We came out swinging,” Beattie said. “Luke pitched a phenomenal game, threw everything for strikes and competed well. And our hits, our batters came out really swinging and putting the barrel on the ball.”
Back in Plant City, Durant hosted Hillsborough High School later in the evening to open their 2022 season with a victory of their own.
In the absence of starting pitcher Blaine Rowland due to injury, newly-added senior Torin Byrnes got the start for the Cougars.
Hillsborough was able to string together a few hits in the first to take a 1-0 lead, but much like Crest, Durant wasn’t down for long in the contest.
In the bottom half of the inning, leadoff hitter Avery Cherry and the big bat of Dylan LaPointe were able to work their way on base for Carlos Morales who cleared the bags with a double to left center, kicking off a massive 3-for-4 opening day for the sophomore. Morales would advance to third on a ball in the dirt and later score on a passed ball as Durant built a 3-1 lead in the inning.
“The bats right now are kind of what’s special with us…” Durant head coach Butch Valdes said. “I’m excited to see these guys keep going. When everybody’s clicking, it’s definitely going to be pretty exciting this year.”
Both teams would remain scoreless in the second, but Hillsborough would cut their deficit in half with a two-out, RBI double in the top of the third.
Still leading 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth, Byrnes would reach base on a walk before advancing to second on a balk from the Terrier’s pitcher. Another walk to Brantley Howard would put runners on first and second, then advancing to second and third on Hillsborough’s second balk of the inning. The following at bat, Devin Suero came up with a big double to right, scoring Byrnes and Howard for some insurance runs and a 5-2 lead.
In the top of the sixth, Byrnes would retire the first hitter but a walk to follow would force a move to Gavin Florio from the bullpen for Durant.
Byrnes finished the night with two earned runs on 5.1 innings pitched.
The Hillsborough baserunner would make his way around to third, but back-to-back strikeouts would get the Cougars out of the threat unscathed.
Morales roped his second double of the night in the bottom of the sixth before coming around to score on a single from Florio, giving Durant one final run and a 6-2 lead.
Florio would come back out for the top of the seventh, sitting the Terriers down in order and sealing the 1-0 start to the year.
“It’s huge,” Valdes said about seeing Byrnes step up for the pitching staff. “We have another senior in Weston Sanchez who will be throwing on Thursday but it takes some of the load off of his back, so Torin is huge for us right now. And Florio is huge. We have a couple more guys that are in the pen that we’re going to see come out, to see if we can get those arms going. We seem to pop up with new arms all the time. We had to do it last year so they kind of figured it out and we’ll do it this year.”
Durant, Plant City and Strawberry Crest will all be back in action on Thursday as the Cougars head to Sumner, the Raiders host Newsome and the Chargers return to Jesuit for a matchup against Northeast.