SARASOTA
The fastball left Cody Brickhouse’s right hand and sailed high and out of the strike zone.
“Pitch the game you’ve been pitching all night,” Sarasota High coach Clyde Metcalf shouted from the edge of the Sailors’ dugout.
Brandon Lam of Lakewood Ranch is picked off first base as Sarasota's Aiden Wolfe applies the tag in the Class 7A-District 10 Friday at Ronald K. Drews Field. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
Brickhouse stepped off the mound, gloved the throw from the catcher and gave Metcalf a nod. Then he blew a 3-2 fastball past Lakewood Ranch High’s Pablo Garbitos and found himself in the middle of a celebration.
Fueled by their hard-working senior right-hander, the Sailors knocked off the Mustangs 3-0 Friday night to win the Class 7A-District 10 championship. Sarasota (16-11) hosts Seminole at 7 p.m. Thursday in a Region 3 quarterfinal.
Lakewood Ranch (17-9) heads to St. Petersburg Northeast, the District 9 champion, Thursday in another quarterfinal.
“He goes at the game pretty hard — he really does,” Metcalf said of Brickhouse. “Sometimes when you’re pitching, it’s not too good to go at it quite that hard. I think he was trying to do a little bit too much there at the end. Just calm him down, throw a strike and let’s get out of here. And that’s what he did.”
Sarasota pitcher Cody Brickhouse pitches against Lakewood Ranch in the Class 7A-District 10 Friday at Ronald K. Drews Field. Brickhouse pitched a complete-game shutout in the Sailors' 3-0 win. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
That’s what Brickhouse did most of the night, too, throwing 67 of 90 pitches for strikes without issuing a walk in earning a complete-game shutout. Alternating between a big-breaking curveball and an effective fastball, Brickhouse struck out eight.
“I had good command of my breaking ball (Friday). I actually have two breaking balls and they were both working,” said Brickhouse, slowed by a groin injury earlier this season. “I was just glad I was able to work the zone and trick the hitters.”
He tricked the runners, too, picking off Brandon Lam and Christian Hill during the top of the second inning.
But Brickhouse’s best work came in the fifth, when he fanned Connor Hetterich and Trevor Losada after the Mustangs loaded the bases on three singles.
“He got in a couple of jams, and we got in a little bit of trouble, he made the pitches,” Metcalf said. “He really reached down deep. . . . His last two or three times out, he’s been really good.”
Sarasota's Nick Long gets past the tag of Lakewood Ranch catcher Matt Roberts in the Class 7A-District 10 Friday at Ronald K. Drews Field. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
Sarasota’s hitters did just enough to support him, throwing up single runs during the third, fourth and sixth innings.
It was the epitome of small ball, beginning in the third, when Matt Schlabach singled, went to second on Vaun Brown’s sacrifice bunt and scored on a throwing error by Losada, Lakewood Ranch’s first baseman.
Brickhouse lead off the fourth with a hit and his courtesy runner, Clayton Murray, went to second after Nick Long walked. Murray then scored on Carson Kyser’s seeing-eye hit to right. Adam Imwalle drove in Sarasota’s final run during the sixth.
“I would say we took advantage of our opportunities,” Metcalf said. “(Lakewood Ranch) made a couple of mistakes, which lead to opportunities for us. And we’d draw a walk, get a base hit and move the guy around. . . . We’re continuing, even this late in the year, to grow as an offensive team. And we’re getting better.”
Lakewood Ranch’s Colton Chupp allowed two earned runs in five-plus innings, striking out five, and added two hits. Matt Roberts singled twice for the Mustangs.
“Coming into the game, I knew it was going to be a tough ballgame,” Brickhouse said. “(Lakewood Ranch) is a good ballclub, they execute well. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We just came out with a fire and played our game.”
