High School District Baseball Tournaments Loom

As baseball's district tournaments get underway, it could be a short week for schools in the Seminole Heights area.

Middleton High School is the only exception as the Tigers boast a winning record of 12-6 and finished fourth in class 4A district 9.

The Tigers team batting average of .400, partially due to the district best .579 average of third baseman Dexter McCall, is a testament to the power in their lineup. If Middleton can get their bats going against Strawberry Crest (9-12) in the first round, they should be able to reach the semifinals.

Middleton's primary starters, Durin O'Linger (6-3) and Eric Comstock (5-3) are both coming off winning regular seasons and have given coach Vernon Slayter confidence that his team can win the tournament with a good blend of offense and defense.

O'Linger will start in Middleton's game against Strawberry Crest on Tuesday. In his last outing, the junior gave up only two hits in five shut out innings against Chamberlain.

The Tigers were 2-0 against the Chargers this season with O'Linger collecting one of those victories.

"I feel like we've worked out most of our kinks during the season," Middleton coach Vernon Slayter said. "We're better prepared than teams I've had in the past. It's going to be huge for our pitchers to get on a roll. We have to play one game at a time right now so everybody has to be ready to go."

Tampa Catholic High School struggled this year finishing with a record of 10-13 due to woes on the mound.

The Crusaders hit well this season, batting .334 as a team but found it difficult to collect wins. Only junior Derek Martin (3-1) boasts a winning record this season of all Tampa Catholic pitchers.

Coach Pat Russo will be encouraged ahead of the district tournament that his team may be coming together at the right time after winning two out of there last three games.

They will face St. Petersburg Catholic, a team they split their season series with, at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at Clearwater Central Catholic High School.

Hillsborough High School has found victories hard to come by this season finishing with a record of 5-18 and second to last in the district ahead of only Chamberlain. Whether on the mound or at the plate, the Terriers have struggled to find any kind of consistency.

Coach Kenny White's frustration has been high throughout the season as his team struggled defensively committing error after error. The Terriers situational hitting has been lacking as well but the fact that good pitching has been hard to come by despite White trying  eleven different arms on the hill has been even more costly.

The good news for the Terriers is that four of their five victories this season came against district opponents. The bad news is that none of those were against their first round opponent; the Leto Falcons.

The Terriers will play Leto, hosts of the class 5A district 9 tournament, on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Chamberlain High School was in action against Gaither on Monday night. They were 3-19 during the regular season and 0-2 against the Cowboys.