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PHOTO/METRO
Brandon Millan pitched 6.1 innings of three-hit baseball to propel the St. Cloud to a 2-0 win over Osceola High last Thursday night.
The win lifted St. Cloud to 9-4 on the season and avenged a 5-1 loss to the Kowboys back on March 12. Osceola dropped to 10-6 on the season.
Millan was masterful in the win. He allowed runners in scoring position in two of the first three innings, but got out of jams both times. After allowing a single to Jose Perez in the third, Millan retired 12 of the next 14 batters, allowing no hits and just a pair of walks before giving way to reliever Clayton Boroski with one out in the seventh.
“It always feels great to get a win against Osceola. Coach Birchler has a class program and we haven’t had a whole lot of success against them in recent years. They have a really good club, tonight we were just a little bit better,” St. Cloud Head Coach Dave Blakemore said. “Brandon was outstanding tonight. He usually just goes 2-3 innings for us but he got out of a couple of situations early and got rolling. Really proud of how he pitched tonight.”
Osceola got some pretty good pitching of its own, as starter Shawn Lara retired the first nine batters he faced. But in the fourth inning, Devin Holbrook reached on an infield single and moved to second on Josh Mendez’s sacrifice bunt. Boroski then pushed a bunt single past Lara to put runners on the corners before Holbrook raced home on a wild pitch. Josh Jacobs then ripped a sharp single to center to score Boroski to make it 2-0.
St. Cloud missed an opportunity to add to their lead in the fifth. With runners on second and third and one out, Holbrook grounded out to sharply to second and Chris Acuzi got caught off second for an inning ending double play.
The Kowboys managed to put the tying runs on base after Millan left the game. With one out, Jacob Martinez singled. Luis Martinez then popped out before Isaiah Jean-Baptiste ripped a single to right to put two on with two out. But Boroski struck out Bryan Avita on a 0-2 pitch to end the game.
For the game, Osceola was limited to five hits and no runs after scoring 68 runs in their past 11 games.
“We had our chances and just couldn’t come up with the big hits when we needed to,” Osceola Head Coach Scott Birchler said. “We had some really good pitching and played good defense, but we had way too many poor at-bats tonight that ended in fly balls and pop outs. Make no mistake, we did not give this game away, we were beaten tonight and when that happens you can live with it.”
With two weeks left in the regular season, both coaches remained confident. “We lost four games this year to some really good teams,” Blakemore said. “We’re not quite were we want to be but this team has played hard all season and keeps improving.” Birchler also felt good about his team’s progress. “We have played a really tough schedule and have lost some close games,” he noted. “But the effort has been outstanding and we look forward to finishing strong as districts approach.”
County Report
Harmony (10-3-1) was ranked 15th in the state in Class 6A after defeating Tohopekaliga (1-8) by a 10-0 count last Thursday night. The Longhorns were hitting better than .300 as a team, led by Jackson Joseph’s .405 batting average. Sophomore Caden Scarborough (1-2, 2.80 ERA) and junior Pablo Torres (2-0, 0.76 ERA) had a combined 53 strikeouts in 38.1 innings of work.
Celebration fell to 7-4 on the season after an extremely tough 1-0 loss to Lake Nona last Wednesday. Junior Yeremay Moreno was leading the Storm with a .375 batting average; while junior Bryce Reel has been the ace of the Celebration staff with a 4-0 record. He has yet to allow an earned run.
Gateway was 4-3 on the season with senior Kazius Daniels (.423) and junior Nick Borselski (.389) providing the majority of the Panther offense. Liberty was 3-8 and Poinciana was 1-6 heading into this week’s play.