Touching 'em All: North Suncoast Baseball Notes

Fairly or not, Hernando's 3-2 victory against Pasco on Feb. 22 -- in which the Leopards managed only one hit -- was deemed by many an aberration in an otherwise perfect Pirates season.

But for the Leopards, that fluke has spawned formidability. Hernando (4-3) hasn't lost since.

Coach Donnie Whitehead's club toppled another local heavyweight Wednesday, defeating Nature Coast 6-5 on George Fribley's second-inning grand slam. Fribley has homered in consecutive games. Senior three-hitter Andrew McNeal has homered in his last three.

"We've gotten good pitching performances and played decent defense -- not anything spectacular -- and have had key hits," said Whitehead, whose club was set to play Thursday (weather permitting) at Citrus. "We haven't been just lighting it up offensively, but when we've needed a quality at-bat, we've gotten one." ...

Sheer Dahl-minance: Land O'Lakes coach Calvin Baisley isn't sure if Trey Dahl's 16 strikeouts Wednesday in a 6-0 rout of Zephyrhills was a school record, but he does know this: Few Gators have had more movement on their pitches.

"He's got what's hard to teach -- his ball moves and it moves late," Baisley said. "He doesn't throw it straight. He couldn't throw it straight."

Ironically, Dahl subsisted primarily Wednesday on a fastball that reaches the mid-80s. He fanned the first eight Bulldogs he faced, and five of the last six.

"He actually had better stuff against River Ridge," said Baisley, who watched Dahl fan 13 Knights hitters in five innings in a 10-4 win Friday. "His curveball was filthy against River Ridge."

Chatter: Apparently, the arm tightness that forced Pasco co-ace Aaron Brandt to exit after one inning Saturday at Springstead didn't linger. Brandt, in fact, may start in Friday's pivotal district game against Zephyrhills. "I messed around and pitched him earlier that week (a three-inning relief effort at Nature Coast) for about 30 pitches and maybe he was a little tight," said Giles, whose club's game Thursday against Mitchell was rained out. "But he's great." 

Comments

[rohde]

I found this new high school baseball website called BaseballPower.tv, it covers high school baseball around the country. Pretty cool