Preps

Positives are few for Tigers in defeat

TAMPA -- Ugly was the word Clearwater Central Catholic coach Todd Vaughn used to describe Wednesday night's game against Jesuit.

Just ugly.

Imagine if his Marauders had lost.

CCC dropped fewer fly balls, booted fewer grounders and managed to score more runs to beat the Tigers 9-5 in a game that was billed as a meeting of two state-ranked teams.

Part of the reason CCC (19-5) won was starting pitcher Ryan Webb, who improved his record to 7-2 after pitching five innings of five-hit ball. Webb struck out 10, walked four and allowed three runs. The Marauders were winning 9-3 when he was relieved by John Petika.

Things went bad for Jesuit (19-7) from the beginning, when CCC's first batter, Orlando Rivas, lined a double to rightfield. Things got worse when centerfielder Shane Robinson dropped a routine fly ball two batters later. The Tigers' low point came in the second, when shortstop J.J. Crumbley committed two errors in a span of three batters.

On the offensive side, Jesuit couldn't put anything together, and at times its hitters were sent back to the dugout shaking their heads after called third strikes.

"It may be spring break, but I would hope that they would still come to the park focused, and that certain other adult elements, in the ninth week of the season, would be more consistent," Jesuit coach John Crumbley said.

One way or the other, Wednesday was not the kind of game either coach was hoping to see this close to the district tournament.

Part of the reason Crumbley and Vaughn schedule games against top opponents throughout the season is to test their teams. Wednesday, neither team passed. Instead, they combined to commit eight errors.

"It was just ugly," Vaughn said. "We got some hits, but this is not the kind of game you walk out of confident that you're going to win the state title."

Vaughn said one of the highlights was Webb's ability to pitch effectively even though he didn't have his best stuff.

After allowing one run in the first, Webb struck out Crumbley and Robinson to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the second. Then he struck out Robinson and Bryan Menendez with runners on second and third in the fourth.

As un-Jesuit-like as the Tigers were playing, they were tied at 2 heading into the fourth and loaded the bases in the sixth with the game basically out of hand.

That, said John Crumbley, was the one positive he was able to gather from his team's second loss this week.

"It showed them that, no matter what, if we make a couple plays here, get men in scoring position there or an out here, we're still in it," he said. "We learned that every play, every pitch, every at-bat counts."

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