After historic week, Braden River loses first round game in Sarasota Baseball Classic
SARASOTA -- After beating arch-rival Lakewood Ranch three times last week, the Braden River baseball team figured to head in one of two directions.
The Pirates either were going to ride the momentum of their historic week into the Sarasota Baseball Classic or find themselves short on adrenalin.
Unfortunately for head coach Craig Paige, his players looked emotionally drained with little focus in dropping a 9-2 decision to Miami Palmetto on Monday in the tournament's opening round at Sarasota HIgh.
"We weren't ready to play and it showed," Paige said. "We knew there was a possibility of a letdown and told our guys this is a special tournament with us being in the finals last year. We came out kind of flat and their guy did a great job. We had a couple of errors and no walks and that was that,"
Palmetto's Matt Turner was in control from the beginning and didn't give up a hit or a run until the fifth inning, when Hunter Thomas' single drove in Tyler Dyson, who had reached on an error.
The lefty gave up one hit in six innings.
The Pirates put together a little rally in the seventh when Dyson singled, moved to second on an infield single by Pirates' starting pitcher John Bean and scored on Zacc Wiedemann's single.
"He filled up the zone, kept us off balance and did a nice job," Paige said. "It was one of those games where you get down and scratch back and they got another run. Not really anyone stood out for us today,"
Palmetto chased Bean in the third, when the Tigers scored four runs after two
outs, getting three hits and taking advantage of a walk and an error.
The Pirates were without Giancarlo Gamboa and his .400 batting average. The starting third baseman was out with a sore hamstring and his status is day to day. He went 4 for 9 in the three games against Lakewood Ranch.
Braden River (10-4) had won six of its last seven games coming into the game, and in four of its last six games had given up one run or less.
The Pirates move into the consolation round on Tuesday and will play the loser of the Sarasota-Bartow game.
Dyson has not allowed an earned run in 21 innings this year and is 3-0.
"We are going to come out and battle. Our goal is to go 3-1 for the week in the tournament," Paige said. "We've got Tyler going to tomorrow (Tuesday) and he has been our horse all year. We expect a good outing from him and hopefully offensively we can find what we had last week. I hope this game was a wakeup call for us. We've got to come out and play with emotion."
Four Braden River pitchers combined to allow 11 hits, two walks and two hit-batters, while the Pirates committed two errors and came up short on several defensive plays.
This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 11:53 PM with the headline "After historic week, Braden River loses first round game in Sarasota Baseball Classic ."