Lavelle Cudjo came into the home game against North Port on Tuesday with a special message for his Charlotte High baseball team: Turn the page.
The tarpons have since increased from 6-6 to 7-7.
Not quite the turnaround Cudjo was looking for, but Charlotte showed some signs of progress in a 5-1 win over Southwest Florida Christian after the disheartening 10-10 loss to North Port.
The implosion against North Port on Tuesday night was noteworthy in part because Cudjo had just spoken to the team about letting go of his sluggish start to the season.
“We were 6-6 years old and we came in. We said we should turn the page and try to do things differently from the last couple of games,” said Cudjo.
The tarpons hadn’t anticipated the week would start at 6-6, but they were haunted by inconsistent play and an inability to keep setbacks from snowballing.
“We’re a pretty good baseball team, but it didn’t show up so let’s try to find out,” said Cudjo. “You hit two balls hard, but is it right with someone? This is baseball. You continue to work on your craft every day, then the baseball gods will reward you with a chance hit and now you are 1 for 3. “
Cudjo said the key to improvement is making adjustments to what the tarpons either didn’t want or couldn’t do so far this season.
“It sounds easy, but they are kids and sometimes they beat themselves up,” said Cudjo. “They say, ‘I just can’t get over it, I don’t know what I’m doing.’
“Well, do something else,” continued Cudjo. “If you hit two fly balls, you hit a floor ball. That shows me that you made an adjustment. When you hit two ground balls, drop your hands a little and try to pick them up a little. When you strike you see the ball deep, get in touch, brightly a ball. This is how you make an adjustment. “
Thursday’s win wasn’t nice – Charlotte’s five runs were just four hits, while a mistake resulted in SFC’s only run – but the Tarpons put together their highest percentage of bats since a 6-1 win over Bishop Verot on March 12 .
It was no coincidence that Charlotte had lost the four games in between.
A challenging week awaits Charlotte with a road trip to Lemon Bay on Tuesday, followed by a visit to the Inspiration Academy on Thursday.
DeSoto County (4-12) is on a tear. The Bulldogs took two wins behind the arms of Logan Adams and Lane Fullerton in the past week. On Tuesday, Adams threw five innings with three hits and fanned four as DeSoto County ruled Sebring 10-0. On Thursday against LaBelle, Fullerton, who had cooled off on his previous start from Lemon Bay, took a 2-0 lead. He too only allowed three hits and hit five. Fullerton also lit it up with a double against Sebring and a triple against LaBelle. The Bulldogs have a great opportunity to extend their winning streak with a three-game streak against Fort Meade (3-12) starting Monday.
Venice (11: 5) the winning streak in seven games was stopped by a 4-1 loss to IMG Academy Black to win three games in three days at a tournament organized by IMG. Before the defeat, Venice rolled 9-3 over Palmetto and jumped to Central Pointe Christian early on on the way to a 6-2 win. Meanwhile, Aiden Corn set up a display. He went into the week without hits in his last two games but went 6-10 with three doubles in the three games. Not to be outdone, leadoff batsman Michael Robertson was 4 of 8 while drawing five walks and four Bases steel. A great week awaits Venice. After Venice hosted Sarasota Riverview on Monday, there will be a home with Calvary Christian on Thursday and Friday, voted 10th nationwide by MaxPreps.
Lemon Bay (14-3) has only played five innings this week and is only to blame. The Mantas scored a 10 place in the fifth inning of Thursday’s game in Bayshore and won 18-2. Lemon Bay racked up 13 hits and seven walks and stole another nine bases. Abel Albarran now beats a straight .500 (27 of 54) with eight doubles, one triple and 27 run-in runs. He also has 18 stolen bases in 17 games but of course is only third on the team in that category. Joel Vazquez added his 31st steal of the season to maintain his national lead. The Mantas will host Charlotte on Tuesday before heading to the winless St. Stephen’s Episcopal on Friday.
Port Charlotte (4-10) strangely expanded their first streak of the season to three games before losing 9-1 at Fort Myers on Thursday. In a 3-0 win at Neumann, Stephen Lomski went the route, scattered four hits and fanned out five. That was four hits more than Port Charlotte. That’s right – the pirates won even though they didn’t get a hit. In the second inning, Port Charlotte got two runs when the runners reached the base on one beaning, one mistake, and three back-to-back walks. In the sixth, Michael Weidner was loaded with the bases that were loaded to drive in the third run. Port Charlotte has only one game this week – a home game with Lehigh on Wednesday.
North harbor (7-9) went into a tailspin after knocking out Charlotte on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Bobcats scored eight hits in four innings against booker ace Gehrig Wright, but unusual defensive rounds (four mistakes) resulted in a 9-6 defeat. On Thursday, North Port was unlucky enough to play a Palmetto squad that had just appeared in the IMG tournament. The Tigers jumped on Bobcat ace Brandon Long for four runs in the lead of the first and never looked back on a 5-2 win. While it took a week or two for the Bobcats, they racked up 35 hits, including eight doubles. Lange outperformed the record and went 7-on-11 (.636).
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