No rest for weary

Tireless Sickles settles down to top Armwood 12-6 in the teams' fourth game of the week.

By JIM REESE
Published March 13, 2005

TAMPA - Sickles turned back Armwood 12-6 in nondistrict action on Saturday. Because of rainouts, both teams were playing their fourth game of the week.

Sickles (7-1) jumped out front in the first inning after Justin Zions (2-for-5, two RBIs) laced a single to leftfield, scoring senior Jared Stephenson.

Then Armwood took the lead when four errors on the first two batters sent Justin Hickman home with the tying run. Josh Sessions singled home Gabby Perez with the second run of the inning. "I was very worried about our pitching," Sickles coach Bob Pagano said. "We have never played four games in one week before so I didn't know what to expect of our staff. But after that shaky start, the guys settled down and I was impressed with that."

Ruben Cruz made his first start for Armwood (5-3). The junior ran into trouble in the second inning. After catcher Kyle Wise was hit by a pitch and rightfielder Matt Malenda reached first on a fielder's choice, designated hitter Stephenson drove a 3-1 pitch over the left-centerfield fence for a home run and Sickles regained the lead 4-2.

"I had him (the pitcher) behind in the count and I knew he had to come in with a fastball," Stephenson said. "I jumped on it and it felt like I got all of it when I hit it."

Sickles chased Cruz in the following inning, sparked by a home run from Zions and singles by Jason Garcia and Malenda, coupled around a hit batter. Both Garcia and Malenda were 3-for-4 on the day.

Rory Price came on in relief for the Hawks, spreading four hits over 32/3 innings.

Left-hander Ryan Roberts appeared strong and got his first win for Sickles with Dan Hatcher helping out in relief.

Armwood began to chip away at the Gryphons' 7-2 lead when R.J. Anderson drilled a home run over the left-field wall with Hickman aboard in the third, followed by a solo pinch-hit home run by Alex Floyd in the fifth.

[Last modified March 13, 2005, 00:23:15]