Preps

One showdown sets up another

TAMPA -- You've got to have a philosophy.

That is what King coach Jim Macaluso said about playing at the high school level.

In January, when Macaluso made the final cuts for his team, he decided the philosophy this season would be pitching and defense. If the Lions did those things, the runs would come and so would the wins.

That is exactly what happened Tuesday night in King's 3-2 win over Chamberlain. Strong pitching plus great defense equalled a giant knot atop the Class 5A, District 8 standings.

King and Chamberlain are tied for first place with 10-1 records. Both have one district game remaining (King will play Hillsborough Thursday and Chamberlain will play Leto Saturday), which means there is a good chance a playoff will be required to determine the No. 1 seed in the district tournament.

Because Tuesday's game meant so much to the district race, King players were talking about it before they left the field after defeating Leto on Friday.

"That's one of the things about high school baseball," Macaluso said. "The season is so compact that there is so much pressure. It was a World Series atmosphere for us. In fact, the coaches were trying to calm them down.

"I told them, 'No matter what happened tonight, 13 wins is a very good season. No. 14 sure feels pretty good though."'

Reason No. 1 that King was able to secure Win No. 14 was starting pitcher Stephen Locke.

Mixing changeups and curveballs with an occasional fastball, Locke (3-1) kept Chamberlain off balance. He allowed two runs on five hits, struck out five and walked two (one intentional) in earning the complete-game win.

Trailing 2-1 in the fifth, Locke finally was afforded a little bit of cushion thanks to the second half of Macaluso's philosophy.

The Lions scored two runs in that inning thanks to a Jeff Bromley single to rightfield followed by two bunt singles by Marek Carter and Zack Livingston. Bromley and Carter scored on a grounder to short and an error by shortstop Rocky Rocamora.

"The No. 1 factor we lost tonight is because of Stephen Locke," Chamberlain coach Dick Rohrberg said. "The No. 2 reason is because we didn't play defense as well as we've been playing this season. We knew if we won tonight we locked it up."

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