No rest for baseball: Spring break becomes competitive

CITRUS PARK -- With spring break under way and most other sports taking the week off, baseball took center stage at Hillsborough County schools. Actually, it was the 22nd annual Saladino Tournament that took center stage.

Not only did Alonso, Chamberlain, Gaither, Sickles, Leto and Wharton all participate, but Sickles came into this year's event as the defending champ and a tournament host site. Gaither also was one of the five tournament site hosts. Here's a roundup of how each of the area schools did during the round robin portion of the tournament:

ALONSO: The Ravens picked up the first victory of the tournament and their first Saladino win in school history March 23 against Robinson. Alonso pitcher Michael Harley, who has thrown well this season and has a 1.64 ERA, got some run support to go with his five strikeouts. Alonso took the game 2-1 when Dave DelGuercio scored from first on an errant throw on a pickoff attempt. But the Ravens struggled in its following games, falling 13-1 to Sickles and 8-5 to Leto to finish its inaugural Saladino 1-2.

CHAMBERLAIN: The Chiefs had a rough tournament appearance, being outscored 20-6 en route to being eliminated in two games. Chamberlain fell behind by seven runs after two innings in losing its opener 12-2 to King. The Chiefs lost 8-4 to Gaither in their next game. Chamberlain led after five innings but gave up five runs in the last inning to lose the contest.

WHARTON: The Wildcats fared about as well as the Chiefs, losing twice by a 17-4 margin. Wharton opened the event with a 11-3 loss to Gaither, followed by a 6-1 loss to King. In falling to the Lions, Wharton trailed 2-1 before King broke the game open in the fourth inning.

SICKLES: The Gryphons went 2-1 to claim the RED division title, mainly based on their strong pitching. The Gryphons topped Leto 4-1 and Alonso 13-1 before falling 4-3 to Robinson. Brian Scoville and Chris Delaney were solid from the mound in dominating the Falcons. Scoville picked up the win, striking out eight in six and a third innings while Delaney claimed the save with two strikeouts in the last inning.

LETO: The Falcons lost their opener, but rebounded with two wins to claim a wildcard berth in the RED division. Leto's loss to Sickles turned into motivation as the Falcons rallied to beat Robinson in their second game 3-2 and then go on to an 8-5 win against Alonso.

GAITHER: The Cowboys were perfect in pool play, winning three games to claim the BLUE division title. Gaither got a complete game pitching performance from Steve Otterness in the 11-3 win against Wharton, then went on to beat Chamberlain and claimed the division crown with a dramatic extra-inning comeback against King.

Tied at eight and in extra innings, Gaither took the lead for good from Jason Baroff's deep single to centerfield, scoring Ty Taborelli and Nick Palazzolo. But a Gaither win seemed light years away earlier as the Lions bombarded Cowboys starter Josh Joiner for five hits and six runs in the first inning. But Gaither scored solo runs in the first and second, got three in the third off a Brendan Domaracki triple, a Chris Pagliuca single and another when Baroff scored on a passed ball. With a sudden shift in the momentum, King saw Gaither tie the score at seven in the fourth and eventually take the lead in the fifth inning.

Gaither pitcher Ray Reed's entrance one out into the first inning paid the biggest dividend for the Cowboys. Faced with one out and a 6-1 deficit when he entered the game in the bottom of the first inning, Reed took control. The senior right-hander allowed just one hit and two runs, striking out 14 King batters along the way.

"We always talk about not quitting," said Gaither coach Frank Permuy. "It was tough when they put six on us just like that in the first. We had some jaws down and some heads down but we told the kids to play one inning at a time and that's what we did."

NOTE: Results from this weekend's tournament playoffs will be included in next week's report.

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