Prep baseball: Hurricanes looking to lock the top seed

The Manatee Hurricanes have their destiny in their hands.
Tuesday's 9-2 win over Port Charlotte upped the Canes' record to 12-3 overall and 5-0 in Class 5A-District 10. The only team in the district without two losses, Manatee can clinch the league's No. 1 seed with three district games remaining.
Why does this matter?
Similar to many districts, the 5A-10 tournament doesn't have a main site - home games are determined based on seeds. Winning the No. 1 seed gives Manatee homefield in not only the first round, but in the district championship game should the Canes get that far.
Manatee has made the Class 5A playoffs the past two seasons but hasn't won a district title since 2002. The Hurricanes came within a strike of doing so last season, but watched Venice rally for two runs in the bottom of the seventh.
"It's good to have that," Canes coach Dwayne Strong said. "But the biggest thing for me is we're getting better each day and each week. Hopefully, if we do that, we'll be where we need to be."

Prep baseball: Bayshore's Pope sent to Double-A

(photo by Tiffany Tompkins-Condie) Bayshore graduate Ryan Pope, a reliever in the New York Yankees organization, was reassigned to the team's Double-A affiliate in Trenton, N.J. last week, according to Wallace Matthews with ESPN New York. Pope made six appearances with the Yankees this spring, posting a 3.60 ERA in five innings. He allowed five hits and two earned runs, struck out five, walked none and hit a batter. He made his spring debut this year at McKechnie Field, where he tossed a perfect inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Pope graduated from Bayshore in 2004 and was chosen by the Yankees in third round of the '07 draft. He was the first baseball player to be drafted out of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Pope spent all of last season in Trenton, posting 17 saves and a 4.20 ERA.

Prep baseball: Milledge making the roster?

(photo by phil velasquez, chicago tribune)

Lastings Milledge is heading east.
According to a story in Sunday's Chicago Tribune, Milledge will be on the Chicago White Sox roster - barring any last minute moves - when the team leaves Maryvale, Ariz. and opens the regular season Friday afternoon in Cleveland.
A Palmetto native and Lakewood Ranch High alum, Milledge appears to be the team's fourth outfielder behind Juan Pierre, Alex Rios and Carlos Quentin, the story reads.
Milledge is hitting .298 with four home runs and 12 RBIs in 18 games this spring with the White Sox. Chicago has three more exhibition games remaining before heading to Cleveland.
Milledge was a non-roster invitee to White Sox camp this spring after he spent all of last season and the summer of 2009 with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Milledge was the New York Mets' first pick of the '03 draft, and was traded by New York to the Washington Nationals in November 2007.

Prep football: Doubleheader heading to Hawkins Stadium

A year after playing out of state for the first time in program history, Manatee's football team is playing host to a similar event this fall.
The Hurricanes host Don Bosco Prep, a national powerhouse out of New Jersey, on Friday, Sept. 16. After that game winds down, another Jersey heavyweight, Bergen Catholic, will face either Tampa Plant or Cocoa.
Kickoff is tentatively slated for 6 p.m. for the first game and around 9:15 p.m. for the second one, said Hurricanes head coach Joe Kinnan.
"If you want to be nationally ranked, you've got to play teams outside the state," Kinnan said. "That's what it comes down to."
Halloy Boy Sports Marketing is running the event, and the plan for is for the four teams to meet again in New York City in 2012.
Manatee became acquainted with Halloy Boy last fall, when the Canes' opened the 2010 season during a four-game, one-day affair in Woodland Hills, Pa.
Kinnan said whatever money made this season will be rolled over to finance next year's doubleheader, meaning none of the teams involved will make or lose any money.
"But it will be a great experience for the kids," Kinnan said.
The Bosco Prep Ironmen went 12-0 last season - defeating Bergen Catholic to win their fifth straight state title - and have won 35 straight games. They finished the year ranked seventh in the USA Today Super 25 and sixth in the RivalsHigh top 100.
The Canes were ranked 32nd by Rivals.
Bergen Catholic went 10-2 last year, losing both games to Bosco, and finished 59th in Rivals' rankings.
Cocoa won the Class 2A state title and finished 29th last year, while Tampa Plant reached the Class 5A state final.
As for the Hurricanes, their schedule will be full of challenges. The Canes open the season in Olney, Md. against Our Lady of Good Counsel, ranked 83rd by Rivals. Then comes Riverview, Bosco and Southeast.
"We're going to have a muderous first four games," Kinnan said, adding this schedule may be the team's most difficult.
In Week 7, the Canes host Class 6A state semifinalist Cypress Bay.
"We're going to see a lot of new people on our schedule, people we haven't seen before," said Kinnan, whose Canes have reached the state semifinals in four of the past six seasons. "It's going to be exciting."

Prep wrestling: Doran won't wrestle in college

(photo by Paul Videla)

It's hard to imagine Alex Doran doing anything but wrestling.
But the Manatee senior has no plans to further his career in the sport at the collegiate level. Instead, he will major in pre-nursing next year at Florida Gulf Coast University, which does not offer wrestling.
"I just want to do something different," said Doran, who has been wrestling since he was 5.
He picked a heck of a way to go out - Doran broke Manatee's record for wins in a season (53) and a career (168) this year and finished third in the state in Class 3A at 140 pounds.
A four-time state qualifier, Doran never finished lower than fourth at the state meet, and became the first Hurricanes wrestler to win a state title as a fresman in 2008.
He was dominant at the local level, too, nabbing four county championships and winning all of his county tournament matches by either pin or technical fall.
Just because he isn't wrestling doesn't mean Doran will put the kibosh on athletics - he plans to play intramural basketball or beach volleyball alongside fellow Canes wrestler Ronny Whitt, who is also attending FGCU.
"We'll just have some fun," Doran said.

Prep baseball: Murphy coming to McKechnie?

(riveraveblues.com)

Bradenton's J.R. Murphy made his professional debut two summers ago at Pirate City with the Gulf Coast Yankees.
If all goes according to plan, he may return to Bradenton this summer with another Yankees affiliate - the high Single-A team based in Tampa.
Tim Bontemps, who covers minor league baseball for the New York Post, said Murphy will most likely begin the season with the Yankees' low Single-A team in Charleston, but could get a bump to Tampa if he plays well.
That could result in a homecoming of sorts. The Tampa Yankees compete in the Florida State League, as do the Bradenton Marauders, the Pirates' affiliate set to begin season No. 2 at McKechnie Field.
Tampa visits Bradenton for a three-game series beginning July 22.
Murphy, a graduate of The Pendleton School who turns 20 in May, spent all of last season with Charleston, batting .255 with seven home runs and 54 RBI in 87 games. Baseball America ranked him the Yankees' 14th best prospect, according to Bontemps.
Murphy is part of a deep pool of Yankees catchers that includes Jesus Montero and Austin Romine, both of whom are competing for the major-league back-up job this spring.
In his report, Bontempts said Murphy's "bat is ahead of his defense" - he committed 11 errors in 53 games behind the plate last year, but threw out a respectable 23 percent of runners trying to steal - and he could possibly shift to third base or an outfield spot in the future.

Prep sports: Mustangs, Noles and Panthers in Sunshine Cup hunt

Lakewood Ranch, Southeast and Bradenton Christian are among the leaders in the Florida High School Athletic Association's Floyd E. Lay Sunshine Cup All-Sports Awards point standings following the winter sports season.
(Man, that's a mouthful, huh?)
The Mustangs are second in Class 4A with 406.5 points; Southeast is third in the Class 3A public division with 190 points; and Bradenton Christian is seventh in the Class 1A private division race with 153.5 points.
(Standings are listed below)
Points are awarded based on how each school's sport fared in state series competition, with the top 16 finishers earning points. Schools are awarded a five-point bonus for winning a district or regional title, and can have points deducted for unsportsmanlike conducts and ejections.

CLASS 4A
1. Cardinal Gibbons (Fort Lauderdale), 501.5 points.
2. Lakewood Ranch, 406.5.
3. George Steinbrenner (Lutz), 366.5.
4. Belen Jesuit (Miami), 361.
5. Fort Myers, 349.5.
6. Bishop Kenny (Jacksonville), 341.
7. Choctawhatchee, 322.
8. Jesuit (Tampa), 310.5.
9. Estero, 303.
10. Nature Coast (Brooksville), 300.

CLASS 3A PUBLIC
1. Rickards (Tallahassee), 203 points.
2. Atlantic (Port Orange), 197.
3. Southeast, 190.
4. Bay (Panama City), 159.
5. Cocoa Beach, 135.
6. Villages, 128
7. Cocoa, 126.
8. Ribault (Jacksonville), 125
9. Fort Meade, 121.
10. Jones (Orlando), 119.

CLASS 1A PRIVATE
1. Oak Hall (Gainesville), 325 points.
2. Warner Christian (South Daytona), 208.5.
3. Summit Christian (West Palm Beach), 197.
4. Windermere Prep, 177.5.
5. Rocky Bayou Christian (Niceville), 160.
6. Orlando Christian Prep, 158.
7. Bradenton Christian, 153.5.
8. Seffner Christian, 143.
9. Miami Christian, 135.
10. Grandview Prep (Boca Raton), 130.