Local sports roundup | Puri earns an automatic state berth in boys tennis
Shiva Puri earned an automatic qualifying spot for the Class 2A state meet by winning the No. 1 singles title at the District 11 boys tennis tournament this week.
Puri won his title on Tuesday in the rain-delayed event.
He returned to Lemon Bay High School in Englewood on Wednesday to win the No. 1 doubles title with teammate Ariel Gonazalez-Pongo. That victory helped Bayshore finish tied with the host school for district runner-up. That means Bayshore will play host to Lemon Bay on Friday in a tiebreaker match, with the winner earning the district's second spot in the regional tournament. Southeast won the team title.
For Puri, a senior, this will be his second state tournament appearance. He also qualified last year.
For his part, Gonzalez-Pongo won the No. 2 singles title by beating top-seeded Konrad Strzalkowski of Southeast on Tuesday.
Class 3A-District 11 -- The Braden River boys are in first place in the with Kissimee Osceola in second.
In Wednesday's action for Braden River, David Ojeda beat Largo Jake Szeszko 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles.At No. 2 singles, the Pirates' Race Arande beat Clearwater's David Castellano 6-0, 6-0. Other Pirates winners included Sebastian Bucarion beating Palmetto's Connor Vierling 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3 singles and Xavier Muzquiz at No. 4. The tournament will wrap up Thursday at the Treasure Bay Golf and Tennis club in St. Petersburg.
Girls tennis
Bayshore finished runner-up in the Class 2A-District 11 tournament on Wednesday to advance to region play next Tuesday.
Host Englewood Lemon Bay edged the Bruins 17-16 to win the event.
Bayshore's Theo Schultz defeated Lemon Bay's Sara Lown 6-2, 7-5 to win the No.1 singles competition and automatically qualify for the state tournament.
For Bayshore, Ava Schultz won at No. 2 singles beating Lemon Bay's Ashley Tormey 6-2, 3-6, 10-4 (tie-breaker) and Cailin Finnegan defeated Lemon Bay's Stephanie Krisinski 6-3, 5-7 and 10-3 (tie breaker).
At No. 1 doubles, the Schultz sisters defeated Lown and Tormey 6-3, 7-5.
BASEBALL
Bayshore 2, Archbishop Alter (Ohio) 1 -- Yiesel Ur drove in two runs, and Ryan Gagliano pitched three shutout innings in relief for the host Bruins. Ur singled in a run in the first and got an RBI double in the fifth. Gagliano struck out four, allowed two hits and walked one. Ur started the game for Bayshore (6-11) and went four innings. He gave up an unearned run, three hits and walked two. The Bruins are at Booker Thursday.
Braden River 2, Sarasota 1 -- Braden River (13-5) rode the arm of pitcher Eric Kimsey and got some timely hitting to defeat host Sarasota (14-4).
Kimsey went 6 1/3 innings and gave up four hits with three strikeouts.
The Pirates got their first run in the first on an RBI single by Tyler Dyson and picked up the other when Brian Dillingham scored on a fielder's choice.
Dillingham went 2 for 4 and scored two runs.
Braden River is at Brandon Friday in its final regular season district game.
JUCO BASEBALL
Polk 5, State College of Florida 4 -- SCF fell one run short on the road though the Manatees (21-15) got some good production from three players. Tyler Romanik led SCF going 2 for 3 with a two run triple and a double. Keswhan Lynch was 2 for 3 with an RBI double and Reilly Johnson went 2 for 4 with one RBI.
This story was originally published March 31, 2016 at 12:17 AM with the headline "Local sports roundup | Puri earns an automatic state berth in boys tennis ."