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Another year, another district title for Durant.
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Parker Messick got the start for Plant City.
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J.J. Gonzalez warms up at third base.
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Plant City players give Parker Messick some encouragement prior to first pitch.
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Pitcher Billy McKay instead played at first base.
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Zach Barfield sent a baseball into orbit in the fourth inning.
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Durant head coach Butch Valdes always finds a way to win postseason games.
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Plant City head coach Mike Fryrear congratulates catcher Cory Cotnoir.
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Durant's defense was stout throughout the entire game.
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Bryar Christian gave a solid effort and got the win.
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Durant only got five hits, but made the most out of its plate appearances.
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Cory Cotnoir discusses a call with an umpire.
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Jake Sullivan steps up to the plate.
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Durant was elated to have won another district title.
Sure, five hits sounds a little low for a team on the winning end of an 8-1 score.
But don't tell that to the Durant Cougars. In Thursday's 8A-District 6 championship game, facing an error-prone Plant City team, the boys in blue got a better outcome than most other teams with five hits do.
"We wanted to put the ball in play," head coach Butch Valdes said. "We wanted to do it on the ground. We knew that if we put it on the ground, and made them make those plays, we were hopefully gonna stress them a bit and come out on top."
Durant initially took a 3-0 lead on a Jonathan Hermann third-inning RBI single, and a leadoff home run from Zach Barfield and a Spencer Nelson RBI in the fourth. After Nelson's run, Plant City starter Parker Messick was relieved by Jarrett Joyner.
The Raiders put their only run of the game on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Peyton Collins reached base on a double, was advanced to third by Nick Palestrini's single and, after Joyner struck out, scored on a Cory Cotnoir groundout to first.
The Cougars piled on three runs in the fifth inning, but this was largely due to Plant City melting down. Hermann scored a run on a passed ball, and then Jonah Scolaro scored on an error during a Steven Witchoskey single. Witchoskey stole second, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a balk.
Starter Bryar Christian was pulled in the fifth inning for Colyn White, who gave up two hits and two walks over the rest of the game. Christian, who got the win, wasn't originally supposed to be in the game for that long.
"We were gonna go two, two and two (innings), with the other guys," Valdes said. "Once we noticed (Christian) had control of it, and he felt comfortable, we let him run. And he gave us more than we anticipated, and that was nice to see."
Durant got its final two runs in the top sixth, with Frank Martinez and then Hermann scoring on another set of Plant City errors.
Tyler Mondoux came on in the seventh inning to relieve Joyner and had little trouble retiring the side. Plant City had two men on base in the final frame, on a Dalton Wingo walk and a Peyton Collins single, but Palestrini grounded out after a long at-bat.
In 8A-4 action, Strawberry Crest took a 4-0 loss to the Wharton Wildcats.
