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The Plant City Courier & Tribune

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Durant Touts Outfield Speed

By DAREK SHARP, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 20, 2008

PLANT CITY - For a quick look at what's different about this year's Durant High baseball team, all that's needed is a glance into the outfield.

The Cougars have three new faces there. And they are some of the quickest outfielders around.

"They can all fly," Durant head coach Ron Fussell said of the trio, Gregory Ibarra, John Hicks and Taylor Gamill. Ibarra is a junior; Hicks and Gamill are sophomores.

Durant has plenty of experience around the rest of the diamond, led by middle infielders Jeremy Fussell and Taed Moses. Fussell hit .403 last season, and Moses had a breakthrough year, finishing at .373.

The flip side to having a lot of speed is that Durant does not possess a big power bat. Last season, the Cougars only had five homers as a club.

"We will have to manufacture runs, because we just don't have the long ball threat," Fussell said. "To some degree we'll have to scrap for runs."

Durant had trouble scoring in its season opener last week, losing 1-0 at Lakeland. But the Cougars ran into an honorable mention all-state pitcher, Matt Gendron.

Last year, Gendron shut the Cougars down in both regular season meetings.

"It was a tough game to have to start off the season with," Fussell said. The encouraging part was the performance of Durant hurler Logan Polk.

With Polk getting the call in the bigger games, Fussell feels secure, but the team has other pitching talent from the left-handed side. No. 2 starter Ty Sullivan, along with other starting candidates Austin Buck and Cam Ellis.

Sarasota, the defending state champion in Class 6A, hosts Durant on Friday night. Last year, Durant went to the playoffs as the District 6A-8 runner-up but lost in the first round, 9-0, at Alonso.

Plant City was set to host the Cougars on Tuesday. The Raiders are at Riverview on Friday.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampa trib.com.

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