Cougar Shortstop Winning Battle Against Unseen Foe.

Kiefer Sullivan has played baseball all his life.

He grew up in Pinellas County and played in the Palm Harbor Little League with many other kids that would eventually be his opponents in high school; most notably Jordan Savinon and Casey Turgeon of Dunedin.

Sullivan played during a five-year stint living near Nashville, Tennessee while his mom pursued a career in the country music industry. He played travel ball and in middle school but he wasn’t learning and developing the way he wanted to.

He moved back to Pinellas County to start high school and missed the cutoff date to sign up for the Dunedin Falcons baseball team, his freshman year. He made the team his sophomore year and was relegated to a reserve role on a state champion team.

That was where things started to go wrong for him. In his first high school at-bat, he faced Lakeland’s Yordy Cabrera who was drafted by the Oakland A’s in 2010. Kiefer struckout. And that soon became a common occurance for Sullivan as he mired on Dunedin’s bench his sophomore and junior years. He began to develop a reputation as a guy who always strikes out.

“I just wasn’t seeing the ball right," Sullivan said, who went 3 for 4 in Countryside's loss to Plant Tuesday night. "I’d be way out in front of some pitches and way behind on others.”

Sullivan wore corrective lenses since he was 12-years-old. But still something was amiss.

He was playing for Dunedin in a game against St. Petersburg his junior year when he was called in to bat.

“I just couldn’t focus in on the ball," Sullivan said. "My vision was skewed and it seemed like there were rings around the ball, like when you get chlorine in your eyes from swimming."

That’s when Kiefer and his dad Pat, knew something was wrong.

“I was maybe a little too tough on him, saying maybe this was it for him; that he’d reached the end of his ability to play. It happens to a lot of kids at his age,” Pat said.

They went to the eye doctor. They did not like the diagnosis and sought another opinion. An eye specialist discovered that Kiefer suffered from keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease that effects the cornea.

Since the diagnosis and prescription of hard contact lenses, Kiefer has been on a rampage with the bat.

He transferred to Countryside for his senior year, landed the starting role at shortstop, secured a spot in the top half of the batting order, and has not looked back.

He hit over .400. His on-base percentage is better than 50 percent. And lead the team in doubles and RBIs.

The Cougars ended their season with a 19-10 record Tuesday night in the regional quarterfinal game. But throughout the playoffs Sullivan performed well. He was 2 for 2 in the district final April 29 to Sarasota with a walk and an RBI. He even came in to pitch and close out the sixth inning.

And he went 3 for 4 including a double against Plant.

Things look pretty good for him now.