Bulls feast on rare lapses

By BRANDON WRIGHT
Published March 22, 2005

TAMPA - King coach Jim Macaluso has spent the early part of this season drilling into the Lions the importance of doing "the little things." Eliminating mental mistakes and executing basic fundamentals have been key points of Macaluso's speeches.

"We've been preaching to them to do the little things," Macaluso said. "Taking care of the things they can control."

But Monday against Bloomingdale, the Lions' inability to do those little things caught up with them as the Bulls broke a fifth-inning tie with four runs in the final two innings for a 7-3 second-round win at the Saladino Tournament.

"It's frustrating because I know we work hard in practice on fundamentals," Macaluso said. "And you just can't compete at this level making the kind of mistakes we made."

Perhaps the most glaring gaffe came in the fifth when the Lions had a chance to take their first lead. Catcher John Dougherty's double appeared to give King a 4-3 edge, scoring Ronnie Cosse and Mike Alvarez. But Alvarez was called out for missing third base, leaving the score knotted at 3.

"That was a huge play," Macaluso said. "That would have given us the lead, but there also wouldn't have been anybody out and it could have led to a big inning."

Caleb Payne's suicide squeeze put Bloomingdale (5-5) ahead 4-3 in the sixth, but King (5-4) threatened when two runners reached to open the inning. However, Alex Fernandez struck out trying to bunt the runners over, Brian Hassani struck out looking and Cosse flew out to deep center, ending the rally.

"The squeeze bunt was a big play for us and I think it gave us a little bit of a lift when we needed it," Bloomingdale coach K.B. Scull said. "Then we got some big hits (in the seventh)."

Joe Castellanos got the biggest of those hits, singling home two and extending the lead to 7-3. The sophomore catcher finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Paul McClay (2-for-3, double) drove in the inning's other run.

King hurt itself with mistakes but the Bulls had their share as well. Bloomingdale committed five errors for the second consecutive game. Those errors cost the Bulls in a Saladino-opening loss to Freedom.

"I'm trying to be patient and I'm not a very patient coach," Scull said. "But the end of April is when it counts and that's what you work for."

[Last modified March 22, 2005, 17:17:43]