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Raiders, Cougars Hit The Diamonds

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By DAREK SHARP

dsharp@tampatrib.com

Published: March 11, 2009

PLANT CITY - With the teams as evenly matched as ever, Durant and Plant City will play for the first time tonight in both baseball and softball.

Both games start at 7 p.m. at Durant High.

This year is off to a better start for the Raiders on the softball side, but defending 6A state semifinalist Durant is far from being counted out. The Cougars got off to a rough 1-4 start before winning their next two.

"We'll get it together," said Durant head softball coach Matt Carter, whose team has 10 freshmen on the roster and has had several injured players miss the first couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, Plant City shot out to a 10-1 start before falling last week in a tough 1-0 game against East Bay. Indians pitcher Kayla Cox struck out 19 Raiders.

It's looking like District 6A-8 will be extremely well-balanced, with the Raiders and Cougars, East Bay, Riverview and both Sarasota teams seemingly capable of winning against any of the others.

"It's tough. If you make just a few mistakes, the other team's going to be capable of putting you away," Carter said.

He noted that new starting pitcher Erika Wetherington has been performing well, but in three games, the defense faltered, leading to 10 unearned runs. However, everything came together in a 2-1 district win over Sarasota on March 3.

Durant followed that up with an easy 13-1 win over Lakeland. Sisters Brielle and Corinne Gordon had two RBIs each, as did Kelsey Horton and Kim Wright.

Horton, who has committed to play for the University of Florida, has gotten off to a slow start, something Carter knows will turn around, adding to his optimism for the rest of the season.

This weekend, Durant was headed to Tallahassee for a tournament. On Friday, the Cougars play Florida High, a smaller school from the state's capital, along with another smaller school, Jacksonville's Bolles.

After pool play Friday, the dozen schools involved will enter into bracket play to decide the tournament champ.

Over on the baseball diamond tonight the intensity - and desperation level - promise to be intense between the rivals. Both Durant and Plant City have run up against 6A-8 powers Lakeland and Sarasota, both state title contenders, and league victories have been hard to come by.

Plant City's lone league win heading into the weekend was a 4-2 defeat of Riverview, a team Durant lost to 7-3. But the Cougars were able to surge ahead of the Raiders in the district standings when they beat Sarasota Riverview 7-5. Michael Crabb and Brad Sabourin both drove in two runs for that Feb. 27 game.

Next up for Durant is a tough one, a trip Friday to Lakeland before hosting Brandon on Saturday afternoon. The Raiders follow up the Durant trip with a nine-day break.

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