Manatee Baseball Advances to Region Semis in Blowout

Dwayne Strong left the field Wednesday and headed straight to the woman in a wheelchair behind home plate.

Since he was 8 years old, the baseball coach had seen his mother, Mary, in the stands, or sometimes right behind such a fence, watching his games.

She was there again Wednesday, but this time to see him coach in a Class 5A-Region 3 state quarterfinal. And Manatee won 15-5 over Tampa King.

“My baby, my baby, my baby,” she said, crying into her son's ear.

The Hurricanes (20-8), who last week won their first district title since 2002, advanced to a 7 p.m. Friday semifinal at home (at G.T. Bray) against Tampa Gaither.

Manatee put up seven runs in the sixth inning and cranked out 22 hits and three home runs, including one by starting pitcher Correlle Prime.

Hurricanes left fielder Tyler Beeman had a home run and an RBI double in the sixth inning that enacted a 10-run rule to end the game after six innings.

Beeman also threw two runners out at home plate. His third-inning rope to catcher Bryan Voelkel that beat King base runner Devon Pedro ended the inning and maintained Manatee's 4-2 lead.

“I pretty much throw right at the cut-off man's head,” Beeman said, “and try to one-hop it in.”

The only lead for the Lions (16-10) was at 2-0 in the first inning.

“We ran into a really good ballclub,” King coach Jim Macaluso said. “We hadn't been pitching real well the last few weeks. But it wasn't so much our pitching as it was they were swinging the bats real well.”

King trailed 4-3 until Manatee's three-run fourth inning, in which the Hurricanes had home runs by Chase Sandberg and Prime.

After that, King got as close as 7-4 after Sinjin Sato hit a triple and later scored on a sacrifice fly. Keon Barrun added a solo home run in the sixth inning for the Lions.

But Manatee's big sixth inning, highlighted by Beeman, who had a home run and double in the frame, sent Manatee to the semifinals.

“We've got a great lineup from one through nine,” Strong said. “And our guys show a lot of resiliency.”

Manatee 15, Tampa King 5 (5 innings)

TK  210 011 —  5   8  1
M 400 317 — 15 22 0

W – Prime. L – Smith. 2B – Reynolds (K), Walker (K), Voelkel (M), Lindberg (M), Beeman (M). 3B – Sato (K), Voelkel (M). HR – Barrun (K), Prime (M), Beeman (M), Sandberg (M).