Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Prep baseball: Updated Sarasota Baseball Classic schedule

Rain washed away the first day of the Sarasota Baseball Classic on Monday, so here is the updated schedule for area teams.

RED  BRACKET
TODAY
Miami Springs vs. Palmetto, 4:30, Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Miami Palmetto vs. Lakewood Ranch, 4:30, Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Miami Palmetto vs. Cardinal Mooney, 7:30, Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
WEDNESDAY
Miami Springs vs. Lakewood Ranch, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Somerset Academy vs. Cardinal Mooney, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Somerset Academy vs. Palmetto, 7:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Miami Springs vs. Cardinal Mooney, 7:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
THURSDAY
Somerset Academy vs. Lakewood Ranch, 1 p.m., Sarasota High
Cardinal Mooney vs. Lakewood Ranch, 4 p.m., Sarasota High
Miami Palmetto vs. Palmetto, 1 p.m, Riverview's stadium at Twin Lakes Park
Charlotte vs. Palmetto, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex

BLUE BRACKET
TODAY
Manatee vs. Port St. Lucie, 1 p.m.,, Riverview's stadium at Twin Lakes Park
Manatee vs. Flanagan, 4 p.m., Riverview's stadium at Twin Lakes Park
WEDNESDAY
Manatee vs. Riverview, 4 p.m., Riverview's stadium at Twin Lakes Park
THURSDAY
Championship games

Monday, March 24, 2014

Prep tennis: District tournament information

Spring postseason gets underway next week with the district tennis tournaments.
Here are the districts involving area schools.

CLASS 4A-DISTRICT 8
WHEN: Tuesday, April 1, 9 a.m, and Wednesday
WHERE: 75th Street Courts, Bradenton
LOCAL: Manatee
OTHERS: Countryside (Clearwater); East Lake (Tarpon Springs); North Port; Palm Harbor University; Pinellas Park (Largo); Riverview (Sarasota); Seminole (Seminole); St. Petersburg.

CLASS 3A-DISTRICT 10
WHEN: Tuesday, April 1, 9 a.m., and Wednesday
WHERE: Treasure Bay Tennis Club, St. Petersburg
LOCALS: Braden River, Lakewood Ranch, Palmetto
OTHERS: Clearwater; Dixie Hollins (St. Petersburg); Largo; Northeast (St. Petersburg); Osceola (Seminole);  Sarasota; Venice.

CLASS 2A-DISTRICT 10
WHEN: Tuesday, April 1, 8:30 a.m., and Wednesday
WHERE: State College of Florida
LOCALS: Bayshore, Southeast
OTHERS: Boca Ciega (Gulfport); Booker (Sarasota); Gibbs (St. Petersburg); Lakewood (St. Petersburg).

CLASS 1A-DISTRICT 9
WHEN:Monday, March 31, 9 a.m., and Tuesday
WHERE: Treasure Bay Tennis Club, St. Petersburg (boys) and Out-of-Door Academy (girls), Monday; Out-of-Door Academy (boys and girls)
LOCALS: Bradenton Christian, Cardinal Mooney, Out-of-Door Academy, Saint Stephen's.
OTHERS: Admiral Farragut (St. Petersburg); Canterbury (St. Petersburg); Northside Christian (St. Petersburg); Shorecrest Prep (St. Petersburg); St. Petersburg Catholic.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Prep baseball: Updated schedule for Sarasota Baseball Classic

Weston Davis and the Manatee Hurricanes are one of four area teams participating in next week's Sarasota Baseball Classic.

The 29th Sarasota Baseball Classic has rearranged its schedule after a team dropped out, which pared the field down to 15.
The tournament has been separated into Red and Blue brackets. The winner of the Red Bracket will be determined by best overall record; the Blue Bracket features three days of pool play before the championship and other places will be determined Thursday.
The tournament runs March 24-27 at various sites around Sarasota County.
Here are the schedules for the Manatee County area teams.

RED BRACKET
MONDAY
Miami Springs vs. Palmetto, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Miami Palmetto vs. Lakewood Ranch, 4 p.m. Riverview's stadium at Twin Lakes Park
Miami Palmetto vs. Cardinal Mooney, 7:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
TUESDAY
Somerset Academy vs. Lakewood Ranch, 4 p.m., Sarasota High
Palmetto vs. Miami Palmetto, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Cardinal Mooney vs. Miami Springs, 4 p.m., Riverview's stadium at Twin Lakes Park
WEDNESDAY
Miami Springs vs. Lakewood Ranch, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Somerset Academy vs. Cardinal Mooney, 4 p.m., Riverview's stadium at Twin Lakes Park
Somerset Academy vs. Palmetto, 7:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
THURSDAY
Cardinal Mooney vs. Lakewood Ranch, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
Charlotte vs. Palmetto, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex

BLUE BRACKET
MONDAY
Manatee vs. Port St. Lucie, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
TUESDAY
Manatee vs. Flanagan, 4:30 p.m., Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex
WEDNESDAY
Manatee vs. Riverview, 7 p.m., Riverview's stadium at Twin Lakes Park
THURSDAY
Championship games

Sunday, March 9, 2014

A final goodbye to a friendly rival

Gonna let you in on a little trade secret:
Not all journalists at competing newspapers hate each other.
We don't swap secrets and we don't swap scoops, and we always try to get the story before the other guy.
But we see each other as much or sometimes more than we do our own families. Why can't we all just get along?
So that's why my heart sank Saturday night when I learned of the passing of Phil Denis, aka Boomer, who was a longtime sports correspondent for another area newspaper.
I'd be stretching the truth a bit by calling Boomer a close friend of mine - the only time I saw him was when we paired together on an assignment. But no matter what we were covering, be it an all-day wrestling tournament or a district golf meet, spending time with Boomer was always an enjoyable experience.
I knew him for about eight years, and as I sit here writing this, I can't think of a time when Boomer wasn't smiling. That includes the time he saw a picture of Eliza Dushku that was doubling as my laptop's wallpaper - I was single at the time, so it was OK - one day while covering the state baseball tournament at Ed Smith Stadium.
"Who is that?," he asked, his eyes growing as big as a catcher's mitt.
"Eliza Dushku. She's an actress."
"Wow."
From that point on, every time I walked into a press box, Boomer made a beeline right to where I was sitting, waiting for me to fire up my computer.
"Let me see my girl, Lemmy! Let me see my girl!"
I'm going to miss covering Bradenton Marauders games while Boomer served as the official scorer.
Between innings, while he was keeping tabs on pitching changes and defensive replacements, he'd tell me one story after another from his treasure trove of minor-league memories. He talked about Mike Schmidt's forgettable stint as Clearwater's manager - "He'd write his lineup on a napkin - and how fast guys like Joey Votto and Homer Bailey climbed through the Cincinnati Reds' farm system.
There was the time he reserved a spot for me at the state wrestling tournament, a plum spot right in the middle of The Lakeland Center's long media table.
"When did you this?" I asked during the first day of the then three-day event.
"Last night."
"Last night? What were you doing here last night?"
"Well, I had to come up early and have dinner with my FHSAA friends."
Oh, Boomer.
He talked often about his wife, D'Arcy, and how much he loved her, and how he considered it a mulligan the moment she came into his life. Maybe that's why he was so happy when I told him I was engaged - he saw the good in having a great woman in your life.
The last time I saw Boomer was during Southeast's wrestling tournament in early January. He looked good. Told me he felt good. We shared laughs and smiles, did our interviews and then we said goodbye.
I thought for sure I'd see him again, especially since the state tournament was less than a month away.
But I never did.
Goodbye, Boomer.
Scratch that:
Goodbye, friend.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Prep sports: Lakewood Ranch third in Sunshine Cup Standings


Lakewood Ranch is third in Class 7A in the Florida High School Athletic Association's Floyd E. Lay Sunshine Cup all-sports standings.
Points are awarded based on  how teams fare in each of the FHSAA sanctioned sports. The top 16 finishers in each sport are awarded points, with 20 being awarded to a state champion.
The Mustangs have 92 points and trail first-place Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas (135) and second-place Oviedo (118).
Ranch's boys, however, are in first place in Class 7A with 54.5 points. Trailing are Aquinas and Melbourne, which each have 50 points.
Lakewood Ranch's boys golf team won its third straight state title in the fall and the school's boys and girls soccer teams made the state final four over the winter.
The Mustangs took third in Class 6A last year with 613 points.

FHSAA: Lakewood Ranch leads Academic Team Standings

Lakewood Ranch is atop the the Florida High School Athletic Association's Academic Team Champions standings in Class 7A.
The Mustangs have 93 points, ahead of second-place Tarpon Springs East Lake (82), and third overall in the state behind Class 5A Gulf Breeze (99) and Class 3A Fort Lauderdale Westminster Academy (94).
Points are based on where a school ranked in cumulative grade-point average for each sport. Lakewood Ranch was fourth in boys basketball (3.237), first in girls basketball (3.65), fifth in girls soccer (3.629), second in wrestling (3.353), second in girls weightlifting (3.624) and third in competitive cheerleading (3.561).
In Class 3A, Saint Stephen's is tied for second with Weston Sagemont (34 points) and Bradenton Christian is tied with Lakeland Christian for fourth (30).