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Mitchell High School pitcher Patrick Schuster pitched an incredible four consecutive no-hitters this month. Mitchell’s Pasco County location gave Tampa Bay high school baseball national recognition. But with hundreds of fans at Countryside High School and live television coverage watching every pitch, Schuster’s streak ended against the Gaither Cowboys. In fact, not only did Gaither get hits (the first being a double by outfielder Drew Doty), they won the game 9-4.
As it was a district playoff game, Mitchell’s season is now over. Gaither was treated as little more than a TV prop in the pregame hype. Their name was curiously omitted from the New York Times article promoting the possible extension of Schuster’s streak. The lead commentator on the live broadcast erroneously called the Cowboys “the Mustangs” (Mitchell’s nickname) at least once and mispronounced one player’s name repeatedly. Coach Frank Permuy, who has been there from day one in 1984, would not take this quietly. Now he has a team to be proud of, and so do I.
Why would I defend them as I do? Because I am a proud graduate of Gaither High School. My alma mater has a lot to be excited about today.
Maybe the school can finally shed its reputation of disappearing in the postseason. (Example: In 2006, Gaither’s soccer team was ranked No. 1 in the nation and expected to run to the state title. Instead, they were bounced from the playoffs. In the first round.) Of course, the regional and national recognition will be like nothing the Cowboys have ever had.
Through long streaks of football and baseball postseason appearances, coach Permuy’s 500th career win, and even former Cowboy Chad Zerbe pitching in the World Series, Gaither’s name value has never soared higher than it did against Patrick Schuster.
I want to see how much respect they get now. Hopefully some cheers from ESPN — and a New York Times mention — are in their sights. To the commentary crew’s credit, they were quick to praise Gaither after the victory. Plus the name that was mispronounced is a difficult one (Domaracki – Dom-a-ROSS-key), and I only caught the verbal error because I went to school with the guy’s brother. And I think they got “Permuy” right, so good for them.
Congratulations to Patrick Schuster on an amazing string of four no-hitters. But congratulations equally to the silver, white and blue of Gaither Senior High.
-Brenton Burkett
The University of Tampa JV Spartans dropped their third straight game Feb. 10 against St. Petersburg College in blow-out fashion. The game was never close. Flat out, Tampa looked terrible.
14 hits and two errors later UT looked up to see the scoreboard final score. It read: St. Pete 15; UT 3.
Truthfully the Spartans looked no better than a High School baseball team in this matchup. Don’t get me wrong, St. Petersburg is no slouch. They tower over Tampa, in stature, but to be dropping infield pop-ups as the Spartans did… C’mon Man! That’s ridiculous.
Base on balls, infield single, (which clearly should have been an error as UT shortstop decided to try to bare hand a ground ball rather than using the big leather basket-like thing on his left hand), and back to back wild pitches is how Tampa allowed one of the Titans 15 runs to score.
Head coach Mark Johnson needs to re-evaluate both HIS coaching abilities and his Spartan players. Tampa previously has lost to Manatee and Lake Sumter Community Colleges.
UT hosts a JV team with many players from different parts of the country and all over the world. To see that with players like this, Tampa cannot put together a solid team defensively, at least, is very disappointing.
I would love to see UT grow and become a continuously better team, but as of now they show no hope for growth.
Word for the wise: coaching staff, change something up!
-Kyle Bennett
Kyle Bennett can be reached at minaret.overtime@gmail.com
Matt Garza tossed a beauty of a game to bring home the first American League Pennant in franchise history for the Tampa Bay Rays. Garza threw seven plus innings giving up only one run on two hits. He walked three and struck out nine.
The game started off beautifully for the Red Sox. Dustin Pedroia took starter Garza deep in the first inning. Garza showed extreme maturity and stayed calm through the game. Rather than being flustered Garza seemed to be ignited by the hit. Garza did not allow another hit to the fighting Red Sox until a Jason Bay single in the seventh inning.
Boston starter Jon Lester also threw a great game for the Sox. He held the young Rays hitless through three innings, but the Rays finally got to him in the bottom of the fourth inning. Carlos Pena reached first base on a fielder’s choice in the infield. Evan Longoria then followed behind Pena with a huge double down the right field line, which plated Pena from first base. Lester quickly put out any thought of the Rays adding to their fourth inning total by striking out Carl Crawford to end the inning.
Tampa struck again in the bottom of the fifth inning tacking on a second run. The Rays put together a string of three hits which was concluded with a Rocco Baldelli single that plated Willy Aybar, whom led off the inning with a double.
Aybar struck again for the Rays with a solo homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning to extend the lead to two runs.
Tampa looked to be rolling until the Red Sox posed a bases loaded threat in the eighth inning. Garza was relieved in the game by Dan Wheeler after a Jason Bartlett error allowed Alex Cora to reach first base. After allowing one single and retiring one batter, the Rays went to their third pitcher of the inning and called on J.P. Howell. Howell forced Sox slugger David Ortiz to ground into a fielder’s choice. With runners on first and third Rays skipper Joe Maddon elected to play the numbers game and get a righty on righty matchup against Kevin Youkilis. He called on submarine pitcher Chad Bradford. Bradford failed at completing his only role of the game as he walked Youkilis on four straight pitches. Youngster David Price was called on by Maddon to face a streaking J.D. Drew with the bases loaded in the eighth inning. Price delivered by striking out Drew, leaving the bases juiced.
Hideki Okajimi relieved Lester in the bottom of the eighth inning and retired the Rays in order.
The number one pick of the 2007 draft, David Price, stayed in to attempt to close the door on the defending champions’ hopes of a back to back championship performance. After pitching only 14 innings in the regular season Price looked to be as if he had been in these high pressure situations time and time again. He delivered by retiring the defending champs in order.
The Rays will host the NLCS champion Philadelphia Phillies Wednesday, Oct. 22 in their first World Series appearance in franchise history.
The Tampa Bay Rays have the second lowest payroll of the major leagues this year. Their payroll is the lowest of any team to ever reach the World Series since free agency started in 1976.
Also, if Joe Maddon and the Rays complete the season with four more wins they will be the first team ever in history to rebound from dead last in the major leagues to the number one spot, in just one year.
Rays fans, get your cowbells ready as the Phillies come to town. The Rays have home field advantage, and I expect nothing less than a World Series crown from the boys of Tampa Bay.
Philadelphia has showed that they have dominate starting pitching and a strong bullpen. The Rays will need to get to the bullpen early in the game. Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Jamie Moyer, and Ryan Madson have been a strong starting rotation all year long and did not miss a beat during the NLCS as Hamels took home the MVP trophy.
If Cole Hamels gets two wins in the series it will most likely result in the crown going to Philly, but if the Rays can get to Hamels, Myers, Moyer, and Madson early we could very well see a World Series title coming to Tampa.
–Kyle Bennett
Game-seven was forced by the Boston Red Sox as they over took the fading Tampa Bay Rays Saturday night. Through games five and six the Rays have began to show their young immature play as they have begun to crumble under pressure. The Rays blew a seven run lead in game-five with just seven outs left before clinching the franchise’s first American League Pennant.
Game-six started very encouragingly as B.J. Upton sparked the home crowd with a first inning homerun to give the Rays a 1-0 lead early. This homerun was Upton’s seventh homerun of the post season. Upton is just one homerun behind the record of eight postseason homeruns.
Boston responded in the top of the second inning with a Kevin Youkilis homerun to even the score at one. After a walk to Dustin Pedroia in the top of the third inning and a David Ortiz double Youkilis came up again, this time with runners on second and third. Youk delivered with a ground out to shortstop, which plated Pedroia giving the Sox a 2-1 lead. Rays starter James Shields then walked J.D. Drew and Jason Bay to load the bases. Shields however was able to get out of the bases loaded jam without surrendering any more runs to the Sox.
Also in the second inning home plate umpire Derryl Cousins took a foul ball line drive off the bat of Jason Varitek. Cousins was forced to leave the game once the third inning concluded. Crew chief Tim McClelland took over behind home plate following a 15minute delay. The crew was down to five men versus the standard six man crew. The crew was forced to be without an umpire down the left field line.
After being plunked in the third inning by Josh Beckett, Jason Bartlett came to the plate for the second time in the game, in the fifth inning with catcher Dioner Navarro on first base. Navarro was caught stealing during the at bat. Bartlett then responded by hitting a homerun off of pitcher Josh Beckett, evening the score at two apiece.
The Red Sox did not take long to respond to the Bartlett homerun as Captain Catcher Jason Varitek recorded his first hit of the ALCS. The hit turned out to be extremely important hit, as it was the game winning run, a homerun to right center field. Boston also added to the score in the inning. Crisp followed the homerun with an infield single. Starter James Shields was then relieved by J.P. Howell. With two outs in the inning Dustin Pedroia hit a routine groundball to Bartlett at shortstop, but Bartlett overthrew Pena at first base allowing Crisp to advance to third base and Pedroia to second base. David Ortiz came through in the inning with an RBI single to center field, lengthening the lead to 4-2. The error by Bartlett accounted for the fifth error by the Rays in three games.
Following the Bartlett homerun in the sixth inning the Rays were shut down by Red Sox pitching. The bullpen for the Sox really stepped up their performance in this game, as they held the Rays hitless through the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.
After the Red Sox rally in the sixth inning the Rays bullpen buckled down and held the Sox hitless through the rest of the game, but it was all too little too late. The Sox pitching was too dominate for the Rays to put up any runs.
Game-seven will be played on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 8:00 pm. The game will feature a game three rematch as Jon Lester takes on Matt Garza. Garza came away with the win at Fenway Park in their first meeting. We’ll wait to see if the Rays can rebound from these two devastating loses. After destroying Lester in game three they should be confident in their ability to hit him, let’s just hope they don’t have these past two games in their mind too much.
The Red Sox have showed a knack for coming back in big game situations as they are now 9-0 under Terry Francona when facing elimination games. Hopefully the Tampa Bay Rays can break this streak and power their way past the Red Sox in game seven. I sure wouldn’t mind seeing the Tampa Bay Rays make history and win their first franchise American League Pennant.
– Kyle Bennett
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