While Tampa Alonso brought home a state baseball championship last week, any hopes of the city honoring one of the other three teams vying for a title did not last.
Tampa Plant and Seffner Armwood saw their chances of squaring off in the state’s Class 5A title game end in the semifinal round at Tradition Stadium in Port St. Lucie. Tampa Cambridge, meanwhile, advanced from the semis to the Class A state championship game.
However, for the second straight season, a title was not to be as the Lancers lost in the state championship game.
After a 12-6 semifinal round rout of Lake Worth Trinity Christian, Cambridge seemed poised to claim its first state baseball title.
But missed opportunities derailed Cambridge in a 10-6 loss to Deltona Trinity Christian.
Cambridge trailed 6-1 in the sixth-inning before rallying to tie the score and eventually send the game into extra innings. But with bases loaded two times in the eighth, the Lancers failed to get the winning run across.
After wasting some opportunities themselves (runners stranded on third in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings), Trinity finally converted on its chances – and Cambridge (20-8) helped. The Lancers committed two errors in the 10th inning, allowing four runs to score as Trinity claimed the championship.
As for Plant, the Panthers came into the state semifinals with wins in 12 of its last 15 games and plenty of confidence.
But the Panthers stranded seven baserunners and watched a close game slip away at the end as Stuart South Fork topped Plant 5-2 in the Class 5A state semifinal. Plant (24-9) couldn’t back up a solid pitching performance from standout senior Mychal Givens, who allowed six hits but struck out 10 batters while going into the sixth inning.
But South Fork struck for three runs in the bottom of the sixth to break a 2-2 tie and post the win.
Armwood, meanwhile, just had a bad day.
How’s this for a not-to-do list:
- Get four baserunners picked off
- Get a runner caught stealing
- Commit two fielding errors
- And hit into two double plays a crucial points of the game.
All of that added up to a 4-2 semifinal round loss for Armwood against Tallahassee Chiles.
Also, the teams cleared benches in the fifth inning after Armwood catcher Josh Spano applied a hard tag to a Chiles runner’s face. In the bottom half of the inning, Spano was running home from second and barreled over the Chiles catcher. Spano was tagged out and thrown out of the game for what umpires called a deliberate hit.
Meanwhile, Armwood ace pitcher Robert Benincasa, who entered the contest 12-0 with a 1.26 ERA, was touched for four runs in the third inning – although two of those runs came on a two-out fielding error.
Armwood (22-5) managed a partial comeback, narrowing the score to 4-2 but the hopes of a rally died when a Hawks runner was picked off at third base to end the contest.