Bad Pitch and a Warning From the Ump Dooms Shorecrest

The Chargers year-long quest to return to the Class 2A state championship baseball game blew up in one inning Friday night. It all started with a harmless pitch.

lost to Brooks-DeBartalo 4-2 in the Class 2A region final held at Freedom High School in Tampa.

With the Chargers leading 2-0 and ace Marc Brakeman mowing down Brooks-DeBartalo in the bottom of the fourth, it appeared Shorecrest was on the verge of yet another trip to the state tournament.

That notion began to unravel when Brakeman nailed Brooks-DeBartalo pitcher Javier Reynoso with a pitch, the second time in as many at-bats. Instantly, the plate umpire ran from behind the plate and issued a warning to both teams: next time a batter comes close to getting hit, the pitcher and manager will be ejected.

That decision took away Brakeman's better pitches and the Phoenix pounced on him, scoring three runs on one hit in the bottom of the fourth.

Shorecrest never recovered. Its season came to an abrupt end.

Chargers coach Don Reed was still irked by the warning issued by the plate umpire.

"We sure aren’t throwing at them," Reed said. "You think we want to hit a guy with nobody on and one out and put the tying run at the plate? Of course not. We’re trying to work them inside. I think that made a big difference. Now [Brakeman] can’t work inside. So all the hitters know that, they know we have to stay away. We didn’t want to hit them.”

Phoenix coach Donnie Oliver could tell something changed in Brakeman after the warning was issued.

“I think that took away his curveball,” Oliver said. “He didn’t know what to do when we took away his curveball.”