By Kyle LoJacono
The 2010 Gaither baseball team entered the Class 5A-District 9 tournament as the No. 1 seed and event host, but underdog King upset the Cowboys for the district title.
Gaither (15-8) flipped the script and got payback on the top-seeded Lions (16-9), winning the 5A-9 championship 14-4 at Leto on April 28.
“There was a little bit of revenge on the players’ minds and they were looking forward to another chance against King,” said Cowboys coach Frank Permuy. “They celebrated on our field last year and that didn’t sit too well with the team.”
Gaither’s offense scored 42 runs in its three tournament games, which all ended after five innings by mercy rule, while the defense and pitching allowed only nine.
Senior third baseman and No. 3 hitter Alejandro Brunet was one of the offensive stars for Gaither. He entered the tournament batting less than .200, but hit four home runs in the event. He also raised his average to .254.
“I was really happy for him,” said junior pitcher Alex Milne, who started the championship game. “He is one of the best teammates we have and he really sparked our whole offense.”
Gaither entered districts with a .275 team batting average, making the offensive explosion even more surprising.
“It’s been a hard season for us at the plate,” Permuy said. “Alejandro had some struggles, but he’s the only player I consider to be a real No. 3 hitter for us. He’s worked hard all year and still had a good on-base percentage. It was good to see everything come together at the right time.”
Permuy also said he was extremely pleased that his squad committed no errors in the tournament.
“We’ve been trying to limit the errors all year long and it seems to finally be clicking for us,” Permuy said. “I believe errors are what lose more games than anything in high school, so that was a big plus for us.”
Milne (3-3) went the distance for the Cowboys in the championship game to earn the win.
“It meant a lot to me to win the district championship,” Milne said. “We lost a lot of good players from last year and I think we surprised a lot of people. We’ve really focused on getting better every week and every day this year, and we learned a lot from the seniors who graduated last year. They should get some of the credit for us winning this year.”
The season has been more of a struggle for Milne than he is accustomed to. He had a 15-2 record during his first two seasons at Gaither, including 8-0 as a sophomore.
“He stepped up and had a big game for us,” Permuy said. “We could have brought in someone to finish the game, but he really wanted to finish it himself. He had some mechanical problems this year we had to work through and he is throwing a lot better. We also lost a couple games for him, so his record should be better than it is.”
The Cowboys put on a hitting display in the semifinals, banging out 12 hits to defeat host Leto 17-4. Gaither piled up 10 runs in the bottom of the second. They took down Chamberlain 11-1 in the quarters.
Gaither will host Venice in the 5A regional quarterfinals on Tuesday, May 3 at 7 p.m. The Cowboys were eliminated by Venice in the first round of the playoffs last year.
Warriors must wait another year
The Steinbrenner baseball team was knocked out of the Class 4A-District 9 tournament by Jefferson 2-1 in the semifinals, one game away from the first playoff berth in program history.
The Warriors (17-7) and Dragons (22-4) were scoreless entering the seventh inning. Steinbrenner scored first in the top of the frame. Jefferson loaded the bases in the bottom half and scored the tying and winning runs off a two-run infield error.
Steinbrenner defeated Robinson 11-1 in the quarterfinals. Jason Wilton (5-3) worked six innings to record the win, while Jesse Haney drove in four runs. The Warriors had 14 hits in the contest.
