SPRING HILL – Throughout this decade, the Springstead baseball team has continually floundered whenever it saw Hernando in the opposing dugout.
Coming into Thursday night’s meeting with the Leopards, the host Eagles had dropped seven straight to their county rivals, and 13 of 14 since the 2010 season.
This time around, however, veered just a little bit off script. Actually, that would be a tremendous understatement. Springstead scored an astounding 12 times in the first inning, nearly threw a no-hitter and invoked the 15-run mercy rule in a 19-0 victory that required just 3 ½ innings.
“Not what I expected to be honest with you. At least since I’ve took over, the last two years, the games (with Hernando) have been one-run games,” Springstead head coach Shawn Laferty said. “We jumped on them early, they made some mistakes and we just hit the ball. They made some mistakes and you could just see the air come out of them, and it didn’t come back.
“That’s just crazy. That doesn’t happen to a Hernando baseball team. It doesn’t happen. It’s just something that’s a freak thing. You don’t expect that any time you play them guys.”
After a spotless top of the first, the Eagles (14-2) unleashed an onslaught partly their own doing and partially fueled by a few inexplicable defensive miscues by the Leopards (9-5).
Max Glenn started the bottom of the frame with a single, Dakota Blevens was hit by a pitch and Johnny Oliveira worked a walk to immediately load the bases. Joey Delgatto followed with a routine grounder to second that likely would have scored a run regardless, but was booted by the second baseman and let Blevens come across, as well.
Hernando failed to properly execute a rundown on Dominic Marrone’s grounder, allowing him to reach on a fielder’s choice without recording the first out. Oliveira would score on a wild pitch, and a few batters later Luke Laferty took a pitch in the back with the sacks full, increasing the lead to 4-0.
After a strikeout, Brett Maharaj beat out what would have been an inning-ending double play to plate another run. That opened the door for Glenn and Oliveira to each hit two-run doubles, and Delgatto added a run batted in on a two-bagger of his own.
Another error, this time by the first baseman on Jack Jasiak’s hard grounder, and a wild pitch accounted for the last two runs of the inning, which saw the Eagles fall one man short of batting around twice. They totaled six hits, worked one walk, had three hitters get plunked and benefitted from two errors.
“It was pretty crazy, because I don’t think I’ve gotten up twice in an inning before,” Delgatto said. “It was good. It was nice to get a lot of runs.”
Delgatto, getting the start on the mound, admitted it was nice having such a large cushion, though he said it felt unusual having such a long inning of rest. He hardly showed any ill effects, as the right-hander rarely allowed any contact.
Of the first 13 batters Delgatto faced, 10 of them struck out. The only exceptions were a lineout to third by Anthony Urso in the first, a two-out walk of Trevor Vendrone in the second and an error allowing Kobe Simon to reach leading off the third.
He came within a strike of throwing a shortened no-hitter before Austin Legg singled up the middle in the fourth. Marrone then made a nice snare of Vendrone’s low liner down the first-base line to end the game.
“The fastball was moving a lot. Slider was a little off tonight, but the fastball was looking good tonight,” Delgatto said. “It would have felt good because I don’t know the last time I’ve had a no-hitter.
“It definitely has a lot of extra. It just feels really good because we haven’t beat (Hernando) in so long.”
The complete-game performance featured 10 strikeouts and only required four innings of work because the Eagles just kept on pushing runs across. Delgatto himself was a huge part of that, driving in two with a single in the second.
In the bottom of the third, Springstead sent 11 men to the plate, and the Leopards committed three more errors. Oliveira and Jasiak each hit RBI singles in the five-run outburst.
“To me, I like winning a 2-1 game, 3-2 game, close game,” Coach Laferty said. “You know they just fell flat. That’s not what you want from those guys. They’re a good program. Nobody likes a program to be beat like that.
“They’ve owned us. So maybe that’s some pent-up frustration, I don’t know. Other than that, Tim (Sims) runs a great program. There’s no animosity there. It is what it is. You know they’re better than that.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.