CLEARWATER - Sometimes, when you are the only team left, the last sliver of high school baseball available in Pinellas County, the lone hope for a state title and some national recognition, funny things happen.
Sometimes, a random car you don't recognize stops in the middle of the street so a voice you don't recognize can yell out they saw your picture in the paper.
Oh, and by the way: Good luck next game.
That was John Petika on Saturday just hours after his sixth-inning home run Friday broke a tie and sent his Clearwater Central Catholic Marauders into today's region final, where they host Winter Park Trinity Prep in a rematch of last year's region final. The winner advances to the Class 2A state semifinals at Tampa's Legends Field next week.
Of the four county teams that went to the final four last season, only the Marauders, the defending Class 2A state champions, are alive.
Northside Christian was ineligible for the playoffs. East Lake didn't make it out of districts, and Dunedin was one of four county teams to lose in Friday's region semifinals.
"It's nice," Petika said, "to be the only team still going. I guess all eyes will be on us."
All eyes would be smart to be. The Marauders have won their past three in their final at-bat.
Chris Heil's grand slam in the bottom of the seventh won the district title. A three-run seventh against Berkeley Prep led to an extra-inning victory, and Petika's homer was the winner Friday against Orlando Lake Highland. "As long as we keep winning them, I don't care how we do it," coach Todd Vaughan said.
A student of CCC baseball history (as a player, he started on the 1979 title team), Vaughan was well aware when the year started that none of the past three Marauder final four teams even made it out of districts the next year.
That was goal No. 1 for Vaughan. Once his team did, it convinced him it can repeat as state champions with the victory against Berkeley Prep, when it erased a 8-5 deficit.
"I think that win was really important, a huge momentum builder" said Heil, the first baseman. "I got on base with one out, and I still thought our season was over. By the time I got to third, I thought maybe we could do this."
"I didn't think they could do it," Vaughan said. "I wasn't sure they had the personality to do it. But I told them afterwards, I'll never doubt you again."
Therefore, Vaughan has no doubt his team can win tonight. The team's confidence is at a season high. Ace Ryan Webb will start, and CCC has beaten Trinity Prep this season (11-6 in March).
If the Marauders reach the state semis, they will become the seventh Pinellas team to do so in consecutive years but only the second since 1975. (Clearwater made the final four in 1994-95.) They also would become the first team to make consecutive final fours twice, having done it in 1971-72.
"It's a lot harder getting back," Petika said. "You have a target on your back."
Despite a tougher schedule and carrying the tag of defending champion, though, CCC is one step away from returning to Tampa.
One very big step.
"The pressure? The pressure is if we don't win it (all) this year, the season is a failure," Petika said. "A failure."
