Baseball: After shaky start, Pasco ace cruises

By Joey Knight
Published February 15, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Aaron Brandt's early season jitters lasted all of four batters.

On a crisp Thursday afternoon, Pasco's senior right-hander was crisper.

Subtract a shaky first inning, when he surrendered two runs to Ridgewood on three hits, and Brandt was unhittable against a green Rams lineup in the Pirates' 6-2 victory at Beets Field.

The Saint Leo signee's totals: three hits, seven strikeouts and two walks on 103 pitches.

Eighteen of those pitches were thrown in the first.

"The rest of the way, I felt good," Brandt said. "After I got that first inning out of the way, I started feeling a lot better, started throwing a little bit harder and felt good."

Brandt provided his own winning RBI with a two-out single in the sixth that scored Dustin Brown to give Pasco (1-0) a 3-2 lead. He added a two-run single in the Pirates' three-run seventh, when Ridgewood (0-1) committed three errors.

The Pirates had tied the score at 2 in the third on wind-aided solo home runs by Zeke Juarez and Josh Johnson, who nailed a 1-1 pitch from Jay Mattos 360 feet over the wall in dead center.

Mattos, a junior right-hander plagued by elbow problems nearly all of last season, allowed only three hits in 51/3 innings before leaving after 80 pitches. Mike Vavasis (double) and John Collins (single) drove in the Rams' first-inning runs.

[Last modified February 14, 2008, 22:56:56]