Bulldog bats go silent in shutout loss

BISHOP KENNY 9, ZEPHYRHILLS 0: Pat Rumble allows one hit and strikes out 10 to lead the Crusaders to the 4A title game.

By JOHN C. COTEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 18, 2000

TAMPA -- All season long, outfield fences 300 feet away failed to contain Zephyrhills. And yet somehow Wednesday at Legends Field, the infield did.

Three balls made it to the outfield grass, just one for a hit, as the vaunted Bulldog offense was toothless in falling to Jacksonville Bishop Kenny 9-0 in the Class 4A semifinals.

But even if on, the Bulldogs bats, which hit a state-record 63 home runs, would have been hard-pressed to bail out Zephyrhills in its worst effort of the season. The Bulldogs (31-3) committed three errors, threw seven wild pitches and turned in one critical baserunning blunder to bring about a sour ending to their sterling season.

"We didn't produce, and they did," shortstop Graham Taylor said.

Therefore, Bishop Kenny, No. 2 in the country according to Baseball America, will play Jesuit at 7 p.m. today for the 4A state title while the Bulldogs will wonder what might have been.

Taylor's high-bouncing single in the fifth was the lone Bulldog hit off Pat Rumble, who struck out 10 in the complete game. With no outs, it moved Jossie Aponte, who had reached on an error, to second and gave the Bulldogs, trailing 6-0, their first threat. But Aponte, one of 12 Zephyrhills seniors, was picked off, killing the rally.

Bishop Kenny (34-1) went on to add three runs in the bottom of the inning, sealing Zephyrhills' fate.

The turning point of the game, however, might have come an inning earlier with Bishop Kenny leading only 1-0. On a routine sacrifice bunt attempt, starter Brett Cimorelli (10-1) threw the ball away to put runners on second and third with the top of the lineup batting.

Two pitches later, an inside fastball appeared to hit the bat of Matt Rumble and roll to the backstop. Brad Buck hesitated before trotting home as the umpire tossed a new ball to Cimorelli. But the umpire ruled the ball did not hit Rumble's bat despite tossing the new ball, and Zephyrhills was not the same afterward.

Matt Rumble, who admitted afterward the ball did hit his bat, walked, and Pat Rumble singled in a run to make it 3-0. Tony Richie drove in two more runs with a single, and Cimorelli's fourth of six wild pitches scored the Crusaders' fifth and final run of the inning.

"I don't know if they were nervous," Zephyrhills coach Bruce Cimorelli said. "We just didn't come out with the intensity. We got out of a couple of jams. It was 1-0 going into the third. We made a couple of mistakes, base hits here and there, and that was it."

Brett Cimorelli said he did not have his best stuff as he was hit hard for the second start in a row. In four innings, he gave up nine hits and six runs, all earned, while walking two and hitting another. "We knew he threw real hard and he liked to throw it around the plate," Richie said. "So we just jumped on his fastball."

Bishop Kenny coach Bob West said it was apparent the Crusader bats frustrated Cimorelli, who stranded six baserunners in the first three innings and did well to keep it a 1-0 game. And Rumble's work on the mound, as he improved to 10-0, kept the Bulldogs from mounting anything.

"So much of their makeup is that they are hitters," West said. "We took them out of their game by what Pat (Rumble) did to their offense.

"And all of a sudden, they weren't able to react on defense when they went out to the field."

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