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Sports
Friday, 04 May 2012 11:44

TravRicharddon1312

News-Gazette Photo/Andrew Sullivan Travis Richardson shut down St. Cloud on two hits over four and two thirds  innings of relief to earn the win in a 6-1 victory against St. Cloud Wednesday.

Kowboys stop Dogs in quarterfinals, 6-1

By Ken Jackson
For the News-Gazette
With a brisk breeze blowing in from left field at Osceola High on Wednesday night, Kowboys baseball coach Scott Birchler knew his team would need three things to win Wednesday’s 7A Region 2 quarterfinal playoff game against St. Cloud: pitching, defense, and focus.


In the playoffs, 3-out-of-3 ain’t bad.
OHS got flashes of brilliance from its infield gloves and on the mound from long reliever Travis Richardson to claim a 6-1 win over the Bulldogs in front of a packed house at Kowboys field.
The win puts Osceola (19-9) into the semifinals on Tuesday against rival Liberty, a 2-1, eight-inning winner over Harmony on Wednesday. It will be the fourth meeting between the clubs this year; Osceola won 1-0 for the 7A District 5 championship on April 27.
“The kids were really focused after that one,” OHS Coach Scott Birchler said. “Now they have their eye on a bigger prize, and they came out and executed (Wednesday). Pitching and defense will win you a lot of ball games, and on offense we put the ball in play and capitalized when they made any mistakes.”
Travis Richardson, who came to the mound in the third inning when starter Jorge Pantoja’s back stiffened up, threw four and two-thirds innings of two-hit relief, striking out seven to get the win.
“He’s our long relief guy, and when he went in I knew he could finish it,” Birchler said. “We have other guys who pitch for us, but Travis was getting the job done so all I could do was apologize to them.”
St. Cloud (13-14), playing in the regionals for the fourth time in six seasons, struck first when Alessio Pena led off the game with an infield single and came home on another by J.P. DelValle, who went 2-for-2 with a walk, to make it 1-0.
The Kowboys tied it in the bottom of the first on Gustavo Rios’ groundout, scored twice in the second after three batters were hit by pitches, then got insurance runs in the fifth on left fielder Tony Lima’s two-run single.
Lima and Edwin Bonilla, who layed out to snare a hot liner in the hole in the sixth inning following a St. Cloud leadoff single, both had two hits. J.R. Charles, Rios and Peter Calilao also had RBIs.
St. Cloud pitcher Abel DelValle battled for the Bulldogs, throwing five-plus innings of six-hit ball and struck out seven.
“Abel didn’t have his best stuff, but he gave us all he had,” St. Cloud Coach Mike McDaniel said. “These guys (OHS) can make it hard on you if you don’t.”
The winner of Tuesday’s game will meet the winner of the Tampa Riverview-Brandon regional semifinal Friday. Osceola would host either team. Liberty would host Riverview or travel to Brandon.
The Class 7A state tournament begins May 19 at Port St. Lucie’s Digital Domain Park, spring home of the New York Mets.

 
 

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