Baseball: Winter Haven holds off Martin County to advance to semis
STUART — Josh Cruz’s RBI infield single in the top of the seventh inning broke a 3-3 tie and Zach Lamb stranded the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to help Winter Haven go on the road and defeat Martin County 4-3 in a Class 6A-Region 3 quarterfinal game.
Lamb, who entered in relief with two outs, got Tyler Murphy to ground into a fielder’s choice to shortstop after issuing a walk to Ryan Chapman that brought the tying run 90 feet away.
The Blue Devils (19-8) got a leadoff double to the wall in right field from Taylor Burdon in the seventh and he was moved up on a perfect sacrifice bunt from Gage McChrystal. Cruz hit a high chopper with a drawn in Tiger infield that was fielded up the middle of the diamond but a throw wasn’t made with its placement that allowed Burdon to cross the plate.
Martin County grabbed an early lead in the first inning with a run via a two-out Winter Haven error but were denied a run earlier in the frame as Blue Devil center fielder Desean Rogers threw out Luis Alvarez trying to score on a single from Nick Robert.
Rogers led off the third with a leadoff single, stole second and eventually came in to tie the game at 1-1 on a perfect squeeze bunt from Michael Parsain.
Martin County regained the lead in the home half of the third inning on a sacrifice fly from Kyle Davis.
In the fourth, Mason Jantomaso launched a leadoff solo home run over the high wall in right field that was aided by a crosswind blowing toward right to tie the game back up at 2-2.
The Tigers (19-8) were able to grab the lead back in the fifth as Robert hammered a double to center field to score Brady Nash all the way around from first base to make it 3-2.
With Robert on the mound, Martin County was four outs away from closing the game out but three straight two-out singles to center field, the latter coming from Jalen Hairston tied the game at 3-3 but the Blue Devils were denied the lead as Murphy made a sliding stop on a ball in the hole at shortstop and the Florida Atlantic signee threw a one-hop strike to his brother Dylan at the plate to deny a Winter Haven go-ahead run.
In the sixth, the Tigers put together a rally against Winter Haven starter Dylan Deleo, who eventually hit his pitch limit after striking out six in 5 2/3 innings. With runners at second and third, Hairston, who came in relief from third base, struck out Jake Schincariol to hold the line for the Blue Devils.
Winter Haven will take on Lakeland at home in the regional semifinal on Friday at 7 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Baseball: Winter Haven holds off Martin County to advance to semis
