Land O'Lakes ace gets things done with his bat

Matt Smith's home run in the seventh nets the Gators a win over district rival Rams.

By JOHN C. COTEY
Published March 3, 2007

LAND O'LAKES - His two-run single to put his team ahead in the fifth inning wasn't enough, so Matt Smith made sure his next hit was.

After Anthony Santa was intentionally walked with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Smith hammered a pitch over the centerfield wall for a walk-off home run to give Land O'Lakes a 7-4 win over Ridgewood in a battle of the top teams in Class 5A, District 7 on Friday.

Smith, who started on the mound but couldn't protect the 4-2 lead he gave himself, turned on a fastball by Ridgewood's Jay Mattos 0-1 for his second homer of the year.

"I knew it was gone," said Smith, who flipped his bat but said he was going to apologize for it.

"It was just an excitement thing."

The victory was Land O'Lakes' (4-0) first complete game of the season after three mercy-rule wins. Ridgewood fell to 6-2.

The pitching matchup between Smith and Rams senior Ben Koenigsfeld was hindered by several infield hits and fielding errors. Smith gave up two runs in the first on two hits that never made it out of the infield, and the Rams committed four errors behind Koenigsfeld.

Trailing 4-2 in the sixth, Smith was chased after a walk loaded the bases with one out. Koenigsfeld delivered a two-run single off reliever Eric Casarez (1-0) to tie it.

Cameron Harris led off the Land O'Lakes seventh with a single, was bunted to second before the intentional walk to Santa set up Smith, who didn't have a single at-bat the past two seasons, for his heroics.

GULF 12, HUDSON 0 (5 INNINGS): The Bucs improved to 3-1 in Class 4A, District 8 (4-5 overall), easily handling the Cobras for their second straight win. Weston Revak (2-1) pitched a complete game, and Matt Phillips was 3-for-3 with five RBIs the night after delivering a walk-off double in a victory over Hernando.

John C. Cotey can be reached at johncotey@gmail.com or (727) 869-6261.

[Last modified March 2, 2007, 23:05:20]