Durant made the drive to Plant City High School on Tuesday as the Cougars moved to 4-1 on the year with a 7-2 win in extra innings.
Durant and Plant City have been trending in different directions as the Tampa Bay Area’s annual Saladino Tournament approaches. The Cougars are currently riding what is now a four-game win streak since opening the season with a 4-2 loss to Plant, a win streak in which they’ve outscored their opponents 32-5 and features big wins over Gaither and Plant City this past week.
The Raiders have alternatively struggled after opening their year with back-to-back wins over Freedom and Newsome, now falling to 2-3 with consecutive losses against tough opponents in Lennard, Strawberry Crest and Durant.
Looking for a chance to bounce back on Tuesday, senior USF commit Adan Longoria took the mound for the Raiders, and he was sharp from the first inning as he struck out two of the first three batters he faced with a soft ground out to second in between. And taking the mound to start the bottom of the frame was Durant’s Gavin Florio, looking for another strong outing after tossing a scoreless inning with two strikeouts in the Raiders win over Gaither last Thursday. With a ground out to third, a soft fly out to right and a strikeout to end the frame, both pitchers were perfect through one.
In the top half of the second, Longoria picked up where he left off in the first and cruised through the frame by striking out the side in order. And not to be outdone, Florio struck out the first two hitters he faced in the second before inducing another ground ball to third to end the inning.
Moving to the third, the Cougars had finally appeared to break through as junior Pete Oderio notched the first hit of the ball game on a hard line drive to right field, but Durant’s first baserunner was immediately retired as a perfect throw from Chase Mobley in right gunned down Oderio at second as he attempted to stretch his base hit into a double. Unfazed, Longoria then struck out the next two batters. Florio then took the mound for the third and opened the bottom half with a three-pitch strikeout before falling behind 3-1 in the next at bat, battling back to ultimately notch a swinging strikeout for the second out of the inning. With a groundout from Plant City’s Landon Robert in the next at bat, Florio remained perfect through three as the game moved on to the fourth, still deadlocked at 0-0 with just one hit between the two teams.
After a strikeout from Longoria opened the fourth, Durant found a little bit of luck to put some pressure on the Raiders for the first time. With senior infielder Aidan Welsh looking to stay alive in a 1-2 count, Longoria notched his eighth strikeout of the contest by drawing a check swing on a breaking ball in the dirt, but the pitch made its way to the backstop and Welsh was able to reach first safely. In the Cougars’ next at bat, junior Blaine Rowland worked a full count and continued to battle with foul ball after foul ball until he eventually drew a walk to put runners on first and second with just one out. Both runners were subsequently able to advance to second and third on a passed ball in the next at bat, but yet another swinging strikeout followed by a fly out to first ended the Durant threat. And in the bottom of the inning, Plant City looked to put together a threat of their own as senior Deven Gonzalez ripped a single to left to leadoff the inning, moving into scoring position with one out following a bunt from junior Colin Pellicer. With two outs remaining for the Raiders to drive Gonzalez in and open the scoring, Florio ended his scoreless outing by retiring the next two hitters via a strikeout and a hard line out to straight away center field.
And in the top of the fifth, Durant was finally able to take advantage of station-to-station baseball and break into the run column. To open the inning, senior Jeremy Ortiz ripped a hard ground ball that wasn’t fielded cleanly, reaching safely at first on the error. A pair of perfectly placed bunts from Oderio and fellow junior Tristan Brown loaded the bases as both hitters reached safely as well. And with the bases loaded and no outs, junior Devin Suero came up big as he looped a single into right to give Durant a 1-0 lead and keep the bases full. A passed ball in the next at bat allowed a second unearned run to come across for the Cougars, also seeing the trail runners advance to second and third, but Longoria answered with three consecutive strikeouts to hold the deficit at 2-0.
Moving to the bottom of the fifth, the Cougars turned to another strong arm in senior Preston Rogers, a familiar face for the Raiders as he transferred to Durant from Plant City High School this year. Senior Anthony Palestrini opened the inning with a walk, moving to second on a bunt from senior Wyatt Fordham. And after Rogers notched the second out with a strikeout — sitting just out away from escaping the frame — the entire game changed as Longoria continued his huge night as he knotted up the contest with a massive two-run home run to center field. Rogers allowed one more runner in the inning, but ended the Raiders’ half of the fifth with a ground out to third.
Longoria and Rogers worked through the sixth with ease, each allowing just one baserunner before their nights came to a close and the game moved to the seventh where Zane Wright handled the top of the seventh for Plant City and Rowland struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh for Durant. For Longoria, despite the two unearned runs, he finished his six innings of work allowing five hits, two walks and 14 strikeouts.
And moving into extras, it was the Cougars that broke through and exploded in the top of the eighth. After Rowland reached on an error to open the inning, junior Noah Morales put Durant back on top with a huge home run of his own, ricocheting off the light pole past the left field fence to give the Cougars a 4-2 lead.
“Noah was another guy that had been battling all night,” head coach Butch Valdes said. “He hadn’t really been successful and then all of a sudden, waiting for that opportunity when someone misses a spot, he explodes on it and it opens the door.”
Senior catcher Dylan LaPointe immediately followed up the Morales home run with a double ripped into the right center gap, followed by a hard ground ball from Ortiz that once again couldn’t be fielded cleanly, allowing him to reach first safely as LaPointe’s courtesy runner Brody Lissy came all the way around to score from second. After a walk from Oderio and bunt single from Florio, a double down the left field line from junior Nick April-Gath tacked on two more runs for Durant and extended their lead to 7-2.
“That was the key, we had to outlast them,” Valdes said. “We knew that Longoria was going to start mowing people down so we tried to make some adjustments and kind of hopefully capitalize on their mistakes, which we did to get a couple of runs in, then once he was done we knew we kind of had a chance to go at it.”
Down to their last breath, Pellicer lined a double into right center in the bottom of the eighth but three more strikeouts from Rowland shut the door on Plant City and sealed the victory for the Cougars.
“We knew that it was going to be tough, more on Preston than anything else,” Valdes said about the Cougars strong pitching performance. “He’s coming from Plant City so they were in his ear, a two-run home run from Longoria, but he kept his composure just fine. He’s a great kid and we’re blessed to have him. Florio did a heck of a job tonight and Blaine did what Blaine does, shutting the door.”
While Durant will open their Saladino Tournament schedule on Saturday against Sickles, Plant City will look to get back into the win column on Thursday against Gaither.
“This run is huge but everyone knows what they can do,” head coach Butch Valdes said. “We’ve faced some tough teams now, we’ve faced strong pitchers like Longoria and everything, so I think it brings that confidence up. We’re ready to go.”