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Pitcher's nightmare
By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer DADE CITY -- Powerful lineups can provide all kinds of gaudy stats, and there's been no shortage in the Pasco scorebook in the past month. The Pirates, off to a 9-3 start, are batting .347 as a team -- a mark only a dozen other players in the county can boast -- but the truly frightening stat is the team's 68 walks. Opposing pitchers have tried to pitch around the county's top slugger, senior Lee Cruz, who already has seven intentional walks, but the rest of the lineup is proving that option as merely delaying the inevitable. "If they walk Lee, they've got to pitch to me," said leftfielder Anton Standifer, who bats cleanup behind Cruz and is just ahead of him with a .458 average, second-best in the county. "And if they walk me, they've going to have to pitch to (No. 5 hitter Juan Lopez), and either way, it's going to hurt them, regardless. Juan's been killing the ball lately." The four hitters atop Pasco's batting order -- senior Orlando Rosales, junior Matt Prowant, Cruz and Standifer -- have combined for eight home runs and 45 RBIs, each one protecting the one ahead of him in the lineup. "I've got some hitters behind me," said Cruz, hitting .454. "They've been helping me a lot, especially Anton here, going 4-for-5 (in a 14-0 win against Mitchell on Tuesday)." Cruz has four of the team's 10 home runs, including a mammoth shot to left-center at Hudson last month that went so far it was picked up in the neighboring softball field ... by the second baseman. "He pulverized it," said coach Ricky Giles, who has also been quick to praise the hitters ahead of Cruz as well. Rosales has seven doubles among a team-best 16 hits, and Prowant, despite missing a week with a bruised thigh, is second on the team in RBIs. Their success at getting on base is why Cruz has paced the county by driving in 17 runs. Two of Pasco's three losses came in the Tom Varn Invitational at Hernando last month during a stretch that saw the Pirates play seven games in nine days. They'll get a chance to avenge one of those losses tonight at home against Ridgewood. The winner will take the lead in the race for the conference crown. "Ridgewood is a team we have a lot of respect for," Giles said. "Hopefully we can get them (today) and whenever we get them again, to make it exciting." Their potent lineup and promising start has the Pirates setting their sights on a Sunshine Athletic Conference championship -- and more than that, another trip to Legends Field. "To get to the next level, when we have to play outside our area, I want to be able to compete when we meet the Goliaths, the big guys," Giles said. "These kids here, I think we've put in enough time where we can play with them. "I'm hoping we can put all this together right now and start jelling toward the end. We've been there one time, and I think we're good enough and mature enough to get that far again." Giles cryptically speaks of the Pirates' trip to the state championship game in 1997, and his team is putting itself in position for another run at ending its season in Tampa. "Everybody in accord this year, saying we have to work as a team to get to Legends Field," Standifer said. "That's where everybody wants to go, but if we work hard, we'll get there as a team."
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From today's Pasco Times |
