Lakeood Ranch overcomes defensive miscuses to advance to region baseball
CLEARWATER -- This time of year it's all about surviving, anyway you can.
The Lakewood Ranch baseball team is living proof after the Mustangs overcame a sloppy defensive outing and an early deficit to earn a 5-3 victory over Clearwater Countryside, Wednesday night in a Class 8A-Region 2 quarterfinal.
They even got better news shortly after the game when they learned nemesis Sarasota was ousted from the tournament by Tarpon Springs East Lake, The two winners will meet next Tuesday in the region semifinal.
The Mustangs (18-10) made four errors, were guilty of a passed ball that led to a run and negated a strikeout by starting pitcher Colton Zimring. But they won to advance to the region semifinal next week and that's all that matters.
"This is a new season. It's playoff time and we did a great job as far as battling through it and just executing unselfish baseball," Lakewood Ranch head coach Ryan Kennedy said. "That's what playoff baseball is about, grinding it out. We are going to enjoy this and get back to work.'"
Zimring threw a season-high 109 pitches before he was lifted in the sixth with two outs and two runners on. Pablo Garabitos, who made a spectacular catch to deny Countryside (19-8) a big inning in the fourth, picked up the save going 1 1/3 innings without allowing a hit and striking out the last two batters of the game.
Lakewood Ranch trailed 3-2 in the top of the sixth when
it erupted for three runs to take the lead for good. Zimring and Matt Ambrosino led off the inning with back to back singles. Zimring scored on a throwing error. Pinch-hitter Brock Sisson followed with an RBI single and the third run came in a single by Ryley Zuhica.
Zimring got the first two batters in the sixth, but then gave up two singles. Garabitos came in and got the next better. Country side put a runner on the seventh when Mustangs shortstop Devin Wall booted a grounder for his second error of the game.
But the lefty did not allow the misuse to affect him and retired three straight batters.
"I feel good about the save. Shout out to Colton. He did his job on the mound," Garabitos said. "He put me into a situation to come in and close the game. When the first batter got on I was just thinking that run doesn't matter and I just wanted to pick the team up and get the outs. I love coming in to relieve. My fastball and curve felt good."
Zimring threw 33 pitches in the first and had to get four outs. He struck out the first batter Matt Adams, but the ball got by the catcher. Steven Wilson followed with a single and an error and a single led to two runs.
The Mustangs tied the game in the top of the second when Trevor Losada smacked a two-out, two-run triple that scored Wall and Justin Fisher, who singled.
Countryside took the lead back in the fourth when an error by third baseman Dylan Buck put a runner on third and Matt Adams tripled him home.
"Colton did a great job battling through the pitch counts and I am proud of everyone of these guys," Kennedy said. "That was great catch by Pablo. He does get some good jumps in the outfield. He looked like he was trying to find the fence and catch the ball and he did a good job of getting the ball and not being scared of the fence."
Alan Dell, Herald sports columnist/writer, can be reached at 941-745-7056. Follow him on Twitter @ADellSports
This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Lakeood Ranch overcomes defensive miscuses to advance to region baseball ."