By Kyle LoJacono
The Pasco baseball team completed one of the biggest upsets of the year by defeating top-seeded Wesley Chapel in the semifinals of the Class 4A-District 7 tournament.
“This is the biggest win for us this year,” said 19-year Pasco coach Ricky Giles.
The Pirates (14-12) were beaten by Mitchell 14-4 in the championship game, but the Dade City squad continues on to regionals by making the district finals. Pasco has made the playoffs 10 of the last 11 years, with 2010 being the only year out.
The Pirates were the No. 4 seed in the tournament, played at Wesley Chapel, and had to defeat Ridgewood 5-1 in the quarters just to face the Wildcats.
“We struggled all year,” Giles said. “I hoped we’d be a good team in April and into May because we made a lot of mistakes young teams do early in the year. The kids came up with a huge victory and they have made big improvements.”
Wesley Chapel (24-3) was going for its fourth straight regional tournament appearance, but the loss in the semis ended the streak. Wesley Chapel was the last Pasco County team to lose a game and set a program record with 24 wins.
Pasco’s Cole Stancil and Wesley Chapel’s Brandon Mumaw, both seniors, put up zero after zero in the first five innings. The Pirates got on the board first in the sixth with a pair of runs and added another three in the seventh.
The Wildcats scored four in the bottom of the seventh and had two base runners with two outs. Senior Matt Wynne lined out to second baseman Clint Tedder to complete the upset.
Stancil allowed six hits in the complete game victory, recording four strikeouts. Giles went to the mound in the final frame with the score 5-4 to see how his pitcher felt. He liked what his senior pitcher told him, as the veteran coach let him finish what he started.
“He told me he had it,” Giles said. “He said he had enough to get the final out. I felt that we’d rode him to that point, so let the senior close it out. He did it.”
Pasco plays at Hernando in the 4A regional quarterfinals on Tuesday, May 3 at 7 p.m.
