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SOFTBALL
+ Lady Raiders heat up
This prep softball season is turning out to be a bit of a surprise: For the first time in a while, neither Durant nor Strawberry Crest are in first place in the district.
Instead, the Plant City Lady Raiders are perched atop the 7A-7 standings with East Bay. Not bad for a team undergoing its third consecutive coaching change.
Plant City (8-5; 4-1 district) has won six of its last seven games, and that loss — a 5-4 defeat at the hands of Durant (4-8; 3-2 district) happened in eight innings. The Lady Raiders have outscored their district opponents, 66-12, in that span.
Edmilly Molina currently leads all batters (15 plate appearances or more) with a .421 average, 16 hits, 14 RBI and runs, four triples and two doubles. The sophomore, who had a breakout season last year under coach Maggie Feix, has shown no signs of slowing down and, along with Durant junior Selena Bezares (.405, 15 H, 18 RBI, 9 R, 4 HR), is looking like one of the top players in the district.
The team went into spring break with a 15-0 win over Spoto on March 5, and will begin play in the Sarasota Spring Slam tournament Friday, March 13, with a game against Sarasota High at 3 p.m.
BASEBALL
+ Area teams in Saladino Tourney
The Saladino Tournament is a pretty big deal in the Tampa Bay area, and all three Plant City-area high schools got a piece of the action this week.
So far, the area teams have performed fairly well.
Durant picked up a handful of 11-1 wins in its first two games, beating Chamberlain and Middleton, and took a 2-0 loss to Plant on Tuesday, March 10. In those two wins, Jonah Scolaro led the way with six hits and a double.
The Cougars had a rematch with the Plant Panthers in Wednesday’s quarterfinal, for which results weren’t available at press time.
Plant City got things started with a 3-0 win over King on Saturday, March 7, and followed up with a 2-1 loss to Alonso that went nine innings. Fortunately, the Raiders were able to rebound Tuesday with a 13-7 win over Tampa Bay Tech, in which Dalton Wingo, Peyton Collins, Connor Slagill and Trey Matthews combined to go 11-for-19 with 10 RBI.
Strawberry Crest has reported several wins thus far, a 4-1 win over Robinson to open the tournament, a 5-3 win over Freedom Monday, March 9 and a 6-0 win over Jefferson Tuesday, March 10. The Chargers had not reported any statistical information by press time.
Both Durant and Crest made the tournament semifinals on Thursday, but both teams lost 3-0 games: Crest fell to Jesuit in the early afternoon, and Durant fell to Alonso in the evening.
The championship game will take place today at 7 p.m.