Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Playoffs now reality

Just like its counterparts in basketball and football, Nature Coast reaches postseason.

By DAVID MURPHY
Published April 29, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - Around 6 p.m. on a picturesque Thursday night, a group of teenage ballplayers clad in Carolina Blue huddled on the baseball field at Hernando High.

They raised their hands together, counted to three and in unison chanted a familiar two-syllable word.

"Playoffs!"

It has gone like this all season for Nature Coast. Win or lose, night or day, their rallying cry has remained the same.

A team that just four years ago couldn't even crack double digits in wins entered 2007 determined to reach the postseason.

"Our goal this year was to make the playoffs, " coach Dan Garofano said.

And as he stood by the visitor's dugout at Hernando High following a 7-3 win over Zephyrhills, he had a moment of realization.

"Now, " Garofano said, "we can add to that goal."

Regardless of what happens from here on out, Nature Coast's 2007 season has to be considered one of the top success stories of the school year.

When the Sharks take the field Tuesday night at Orlando Bishop Moore, it will mark the first time in the program's four-year history its season progresses beyond the district tournament.

Just like the school's football and boys basketball teams, which also experienced the state playoffs for the first time this year, Garofano's squad raised eyebrows around the North Suncoast with the way it played.

In the playoff-clinching win over Zephyrhills, it was more of the same. While the Bulldogs rode the heavy-hitting of Florida State signee Geoff Parker, the Sharks provided a clinic on the merits of small ball.

In the first inning, Nature Coast's two run scorers each reached base on walks. In the second, Chris Jones laid down a bunt for a single and later scored. But the sixth inning best exemplified the constitution of this Sharks team.

Leading 4-3, Nature Coast's first three batters reached base on a walk and pair of bunt singles. That set up a bases-clearing double by Travis Murray that gave the Sharks all the breathing room they would need.

Murray, who finished with four RBIs and pitched a complete game, finished out the seventh for the win, securing the playoff berth he and his teammates had so sorely sought.

"We knew we were going to win, " Murray said moments after the team broke its customary huddle. "So it feels good."

David Murphy can be reached at dmurphy@sptimes.com or 352 848-1407.

[Last modified April 28, 2007, 19:13:33]