CCC third baseman Bobby Uzdavines continues his good postseason with the winning hit.
By JOHN SCHWARB
Published May 14, 2003
CLEARWATER - Todd Vaughan, basking in the glow of a state tournament berth earned on a sophomore's hit, isn't getting carried away.
"You can only get so good, so I can't imagine senior year," said the Clearwater Central Catholic coach of Bobby Uzdavines. "It's not like he's going to bat 1.000."
Maybe not. But right now, when up in the bottom of the seventh with runners on and a trip to Legends Field at stake, it's true: Uzdavines is batting 1.000.
The sophomore third baseman delivered Tuesday night, rapping a two-out single to leftfield to score Burke Hedges and send CCC back to the Class 2A state tournament in Tampa with a 5-4 win over Winter Park Trinity Prep.
"Bobby is the guy you want up in that situation. We've had so many guys come through lately, but Bobby has been doing it all year," winning pitcher Ryan Webb said. "He's, I guess, what you would call clutch.
"For such a young kid, that's pretty extraordinary."
Uzdavines transferred to CCC from Palm Harbor U. after his freshman year, explaining that "the situation wasn't what we needed for school and baseball."
Vaughan heard the rumblings that Uzdavines, whom he had watched for a few years in little league, might come CCC's way but refused to believe until seeing him attend school and make grades.
Uzdavines did, then at the start of the season showed immediately that he could take over third base, vacated by graduated Justin O'Keeffe (who also pitched).
On the year the 5-foot-11 right-handed hitter has a .500 batting average, .730 slugging percentage and 27 RBIs, all tops on the team. In the postseason he was 3-for-3 with four RBIs against Sarasota Cardinal Mooney in the district tournament and scored the winning run last week in a 9-8 win over Berkeley Prep.
By the seventh inning Tuesday he had a single and a run to his credit before his winner. He took a distinctly unsophomoric approach to the biggest at-bat of his prep career.
"I went in there knowing I'm a .500 hitter, I was 1-for-3 during the game," Uzdavines said. "I knew I was going to get a hit that time."
