Prep baseball | Lakewood Ranch shocks Venice to move into Sarasota Baseball Classic semifinal
VENICE -- After Lakewood Ranch lost three straight to archrival Braden River last week, the Mustangs were in the dumps hearing whispers that the season was over.
Lakewood Ranch Colton Zimring had other ideas about how to get the Mustangs out of his doldrums as outlandish as they might seem to outsiders.
"I told them we can make up for it by winning the tournament (Sarasota Baseball Classic)," the junior lefthander said,
It seemed to be unlikely feat, but no more after Zimring pitched a four-hitter and struck out 11 to lead the Mustangs to a 3-1 victory over Venice Tuesday night in a quarterfinal round game.
Defending Class 7A state champion Venice came into the game with a 13-3 record and had been playing solid baseball.
"We were thinking those were our three worst games of the season last week, and we wanted to bounce back by coming in here and winning it," Zimring said. "It's a new day every day. Venice is a real good team, and we played a strong game and got the W. It really pushed us to have a good tournament,"
Venice got a run in the first when it put runners on the corners and then pulled off a double steal. But Zimring got stronger as the game went on. He got into a little jam in the seventh when the Indians put two runners on via an error and a single but struck out the last two batters of the game.
"This game means a lot to our program," Lakewood Ranch head coach Ryan Kennedy said. "When you come out and beat a great team, it shows something about our games that they can compete. Venice is a Final Four team. Last week after those losses, it was a matter of when are we going to rebound? Those things happen. You get into losing streaks, but our guys did a great job this week as far as battling through it, and we came from behind last night (Monday)."
Lakewood Ranch (11-5) got all its runs in the fifth. Christian Lowe walked, and Cole Campbell singled. Ryan Zunica reached on fielder's choice and a run scored.
A second run came in on an error, and Dylan Buck got an RBI single to account for the final run. Zimring had a strikeout in every inning and struck out two in three innings, including the last two.
"Colton is our ace. He is our number one guy, and when he pitches to contact and throws strikes, he can keep hitters off balance, and tonight he showed that," Kennedy said, "He was getting in on their hands, which was good and locating his pitches. I never thought of taking him out (in the last inning). He deserved it and that's the guy you want on the mound at that point and time."
Lakewood Ranch will face another perennial power when it meets Miami Westminster Christian in a semifinal-round game at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Sarasota High.
Venice started its ace Trevor Holliday, who left in the fifth with two outs after Lakewood Ranch had scored all its runs. Only two Lakewood Ranch batters struck out and Mustangs managed to get eight hits.
This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 11:54 PM with the headline "Prep baseball | Lakewood Ranch shocks Venice to move into Sarasota Baseball Classic semifinal ."