Gators outlast Knights 4-1
Some pitchers know from the moment they arrive at the ballpark. And then, it seems, there’s Joey Theune.
Island Coast’s senior right-hander conceded to not having a sense of his stuff until he stepped on the mound for Monday’s first inning, but it wasn’t much longer before it became apparent to everyone else.
Theune registered two of his first three outs on strikes and never lost that groove, ultimately throwing 115 pitches, scattering six hits and striking out six North Fort Myers batters in leading the host Gators to a 4-1 victory over North Fort Myers in a District 6A-11 opening-round playoff game.
The win is Island Coast’s third in three matchups with North Fort Myers this season, and the second in a row following a 5-1 home victory on March 24 in which Theune’s arm played a pivotal role.
He worked 4 1/3 innings of one-hit ball with eight strikeouts in last month’s win, but ratcheted up the determination this time around for his final appearance in a home uniform. The fourth-seeded Gators (13-11) travel to top-seeded Venice Tuesday night, and, even with an upset victory, still will be on the road to meet either Ida Baker or Port Charlotte in a championship game on Thursday.
“No matter where I warm up and no matter how the bullpen is, that mound is always different,” Theune said. “Whether or not there’s a groove from the other guy out there that I have got to work with, or if he dug a hole out there and I’ve got to fill it in. It’s up to that mound. This time, it felt good from the beginning. The fastball was doing really well.”
Cleanup hitter Felix Camacho staked Theune to a one-run lead with a two-out single in the first inning, but the Red Knights replied with an unearned run in the second after Joe Logsdon doubled to right and came home on Brice Adkins’ chopper.
Adkins went to second on the error, but was stranded there when Theune induced a pop-up by Quinn Bourque and got a sparkling catch by Anthony Churlin on Jake Park’s sinking liner to left-center.
North got runners into scoring position in the next three innings as well, but Theune ended the third with a soft infield liner and dismissed the Red Knights in the fourth and fifth with strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Island Coast scored once in the third on Churlin’s single and two more in the fifth – one on a Bourque wild pitch and the other on Alex Nazario’s single. Theune’s lone 1-2-3 inning of the game came in the sixth, which gave coach Clint Montgomery all the faith he needed to send the 6-foot-2, 170-pounder out for the finale, even with a pitch count that already reached 97.
“It’s playoff baseball time,” Montgomery said. “We normally keep our guys around 85 or 95 pitches, but I checked with him before the seventh inning to see if he could still go, and he wanted the ball. If he would have gotten in any trouble we would have had to come get him, but it’s hard to take the ball from a senior in a do-or-die game in the seventh inning when he’s throwing his heart out.”
North’s Garrett Martin reached in the seventh when his one-out roller got through for an error, but he was subsequently retired on a fielder’s choice before Theune got Lukas Post to swing through a fastball for a third strikeout on delivery No. 115.
Garrett Morgan wound up as the Red Knights’ eighth stranded baserunner of the game, a statistic not lost on North coach Tavaris Gary, who saw his team wrap up a frustrating season at 9-13.
“Execution has been one of the things we’ve talked about and tried to work on this season,” he said. “It didn’t come through the way we wanted it to, but you win some, you lose some. When the game’s over and done with, that’s when it’s over. But every inning, every time we have an at-bat, I’m always pushing like we’re going to get through this. Until they say the game’s over, I’m always positive and I always have faith in my guys.”
North FM 010 000 0 – 1 6 1
Island Coast 101 020 x – 4 7 2
W – Theune. L – Russo.
2B – Logsdon, Theune. 3B – Hanslow.
In District 6A-11 semifinal action Tuesday Port Charlotte visits No. 2 Ida Baker.
District 5A-12: Golden Gate held off Lely 5-2 to advance to the semifinal round against Mariner at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Golden Gate. In the other semifinal matchup Tuesday No. 2 seed Cape Horal takes on the Immokalee-Cypress Lake winner at 4 p.m.