By FRANCIS FEDOR
francisfotography@outlook.com
East Bay traveled over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to face the Northeast Vikings in St. Petersburg on Friday, April 24, and came away with a 5-3 victory. The Indians move on to play the Charlotte Fighting Tarpons from Punta Gorda in a best of three set, starting on Friday, May 1. East Bay struck early with back-to-back two run innings to jump out to a 4-1 lead and added a run in the fourth as an insurance run. Rowland Ruiz Jr. took one for the team, getting hit in his first at-bat, and came around to score on a Johnathan Bryant double. Connor Gavigan scored from third on a fielder’s-choice in the two-run first. The Indians Qwenlen Bennett and Trenden Norman scored as the hustle of Jeffrey Diab forced an error, allowing the two runs to score, and secured all the runs needed to secure the win. East Bay used a trio of arms to hold the Vikings to three runs. Starter Cam Cook went 4.2 innings and, while giving up the three earned runs, kept the Indians in the game. JJ Groover and Jaxson Farchione each pitched an inning in relief to nail down the victory.
Sumner faced the tough task of traveling down I-75, deep into Sarasota County, to take on the top baseball squad in the state and could not generate any offense, falling 6-0 to the Indians. Venice advances to take on George Jenkins HS in a best of three set. Carter Cox, for the Indians, tossed a complete game no-hitter, facing only 24 Stingrays and striking out 17. He did allow three base runners by way of the walk. His counterpart for Sumner, senior star Ethan DeJesus, went five innings, allowing four runs on two hits; only one of the runs was earned, and struck out ten. He walked six Indians (one intentional) and one of the hits was a HR by junior RJ Shields, his first of the season.
Sumner ends its season at 17-9. Head coach Kennedy Duran has built a program that saw two players, Winston Pennant and Ethan DeJesus, grow into stars. Pennant launched five HRs and ends his Stingray career with 13 and a career .351 batting average. DeJesus is now the record-holder in a number of Sumner pitching stats, was a top starter in Hillsborough County, and is currently in the 11 spot nationally for K’s and tops in FLA. He has garnered statewide and national attention. Both players will go on to college to continue their careers, Pennant to Ole Miss and DeJesus to Florida Gulf Coast, and build upon their experience at Sumner. Coach Duran has a number of promising players in the wings to carry the Stingrays, including sophomore Braylon Disla, who led the Rays with a .98 ERA, and junior doubles machine, Isaiah Romano, who led the team with 10 doubles and brought the energy every night to keep the team charged up.
Below is the bracket for East Bay as the team continues its state playoff run (images pulled from FHSAA website and the full bracket is available here http://tiny.cc/a9e2101.
Story or any parts of the story are copyright protected, including AI revisions, without permission of the editor. Full game gallery available for purchase at https://www.maxpreps.com/photography/photographers/ Florida-Francis Fedor Photography/Graphics Inquiries: Email: FrancisFotography@Outlook.com Phone: 202-683-9691
