Scores, Videos and Recaps From Wednesday Night's Action
Hillsborough 6, Leto 1
After three scoreless innings, the Hillsborough bats finally got going as the Terriers advanced to Friday’s district final defeating Leto, 6-1.
Nick Romano had an RBI double, and Antonio Jenkins had an RBI for Hillsborough (19-4), now winners of 14-straight. Bryce Blanco and Jarrod Cande each had two hits for the Terriers, and Patrick Puentes earned the win on the mound with four innings pitched.
King 4, Gaither 1
Gaither's bid for back-to-back State Championships came to a close on Wednesday night as they were defeated by King 4-1.
Lions lefthander Brian Lee threw a complete game giving up only one run, six hits, striking out nine. His fastball/changeup combo kept the Cowboys hitters off-balance early, and when he mixed in the curveball later in the game, Gaither's offense just could not string anything together.
Justice Thompson got King on the board first in the 4th inning when he came home to score on a wild pitch and the Lions doubled the lead later in the inning when Danny Terp scored on a throwing error.
Lee worked himself into a jam in the 6th, loading the bases full of Cowboys with nobody out. But the senior southpaw wiggled out of trouble and gave up only one run.
Thompson gave the Lions much-needed insurance runs in the top of the 7th when his double down the left-field line brought in two runs. The King center fielder was 3 for 4 on the evening and reached base all four times.
Jose Cadenas and Danny Gutcher each had two hits for Gaither.
King advances to play Hillsborough in the Class 7A District 8 Championship Game at 7:30pm on Friday night at King.
Plant 7, Steinbrenner 3
Plant claimed the Class 8A-District 5 title by defeating Steinbrenner for the third time this season.
The Panthers scored two on an AJ Hubbard RBI single and Chase Sanguinetti RBI sac fly in the first, but Steinbrenner answered with a Noah Luke home run.
Plant again took the lead in the second as Hubbard came through with another RBI single, but again Steinbrenner answered in the third as Jordan Lala belted a solo shot over the right field wall to tie things a second time.
Plant strung together four hits to score four times in the fifth highlighted by back-to-back RBI doubles by Sanguinetti and Mike Pelaez.
From there Plant junior Connor Scott worked 3 2/3 innings of shutout relief on the mound to earn the win.
A big shoutout to my man Jarrett Guthrie for his contributions to this article. For more on the Plant/Steinbrenner game, as well as a rundown on all of the softball scores from Wednesday, head over to his page, www.813preps.com
ENJOY!!!