Reliever Shane Effertz improves to 6-0 after making it interesting.
By ANTHONY GAGLIANO
Published April 24, 2004
TAMPA - When Pop Cuesta's Dragons grow up, he wants them to look like Landy Faedo's Ravens. Faedo, a former Jefferson player under Cuesta, has lifted the Ravens to a 20-win season in their third year of existence. They've also handed Jefferson a pair of defeats after dropping the Dragons 7-4 Friday in a matchup of two top district seeds.
Cuesta sees a ton of potential in his team, which started three freshman and two sophomores.
"You see what Landy did where they struggled and all of a sudden, they grew up," Cuesta said. "Now, they're 20-5 and first in the district. Us, I think we're a little ahead of that because we already have a winning record.
"We're 12-8, but we've lost three or four one-run games because of our inexperience. Hopefully now, that experience will carry into districts and we have everyone coming back, so we'll have a good nucleus and be solid for two or three years."
That inexperience reared up in the first inning as Alonso struck for four runs against freshman Alex Vidal. The right-hander retained his composure and shut the Ravens out for the next four innings as the Dragons rallied to tie the score at 4.
An error cost Jefferson in the first and another in the sixth put the leadoff man. Sophomore Anthony Hernandez nearly got out of the jam after a sacrifice bunt and a groundout, but Orlando Bacon's run-scoring single put the Ravens back on top. Back-to-back doubles to right-center from Gus Fernandez and Matt Freshcorn tacked on two more runs.
Reliever Shane Effertz came on in the fourth and got the victory for Alonso, but made it interesting as he pushed his record to 6-0.
He walked the leadoff man Peter Millan in the fifth and a wild pitch moved him to second, where he scored on a single by Josh Collazo. Effertz walked the next man, but then got a double play to get out of the inning with just one run.
Faedo had the bullpen working again in the sixth when Effertz walked the first two batters. But after he intentionally walked Fred Freeman to put the tying run on base, the lefty struck out the next two.
