One Plant City High team picked up a historic win Tuesday at the hands of Strawberry Crest, while another suffered a rough loss to the Chargers.
The Plant City High baseball team kicked off the 2013 season and the Mike Fryrear era with a 7-1 win Tuesday at Strawberry Crest. Kevin Long picked up the win on the mound for the Raiders, going five innings and allowing just one earned run.
Plant City took a 1-0 lead in the third before breaking the game open in the middle innings. All of the Raiders’ runs came with two outs.
“With the system we have in place, as soon as we get runners on, we put the pressure on other teams,” said Fryrear, who began his first year as a head coach with a win. “With Long on the mound for us, he can beat anybody in this county and anyone in this state, and with him on the mound, it brings a different presence for us. Even if we’re down 1-0 or 2-0, we can still win, but the thing is, our guys have to buy in and they’re starting to do that.”
The win for Plant City came after back-to-back preseason losses to Durant and Bloomingdale.
“I scheduled those two games on purpose. They’re two of the best in eastern Hillsborough County and we faced two excellent pitchers, so I wanted to see where we were at,” Fryrear explained. “We’re going to surprise a lot of people this year, and if the guys buy into it, and I think they have, we’re going to do some damage in the district.”
Friday will be the home opener for Plant City, as they host Armwood.
For Strawberry Crest and head coach Eric Beattie, the Chargers have to improve execution moving forward.
“They executed in some tough situations and we didn’t, both defensively and offensively,” Beattie said. “You flip around two or three executions there, and it’s a lot closer of a game.”
SCHS will be looking for its first win of the season Friday when the Chargers head to Chamberlain for a non-district game.
Lady Chargers dominate
For the second game in a row, the Strawberry Crest softball team came away with a lopsided shutout win, this time beating rival Plant City 14-0 in five innings.
Sammy Tyler held Plant City to just three hits, while Strawberry Crest racked up 13. The Lady Chargers put up six runs in the first and never looked back. Megan Reed led SCHS with three RBIs, while Savannah Bradley went 3-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs.
SCHS had four triples — Reed, Bradley and Aly Masessa (2) — in its four innings at the plate Tuesday. The win followed a 16-0 season opening blowout of Spoto.
Lady Chargers head coach Mindy Miltner knows that her team will be put to the test Friday, as they face Chamberlain, last year’s Class 7A state champ, in a non-district match.
“The girls just ripped the ball tonight,” Miltner said after the Plant City game. “We’ve got to come out strong against Chamebrlain. Tonight was our preparation.”
For new Plant City head coach Amanda Sawyer, her 0-3 Lady Raiders will have to come out more focused against Armwood Friday if they want to pick up their first win. PCHS committed four errors against Strawberry Crest.
“We need to get more cohesive as a team and obviously we have to work more on our hitting,” she said.