Small Ball Pays Big Dividends

Coming off a deflating 5-1 loss Tuesday night in New Port Richey to Gulf High, the main question entering Wednesday's rivalry game at Central High was whether Nature Coast Technical would bounce back.
At least three players were under the weather as the Buccaneers limited the Lady Sharks to four hits snapping its season-opening, four-game winning streak.
And with a trip scheduled Friday to face defending Class 4A, District 8 champion Zephyrhills in East Pasco County, NCT needed to right the ship quickly against the upset-minded Bears.
The Sharks bounced back Wednesday behind a mixture of small ball (five early bunts), 11 singles and All-County right-hander Ashley Antczak scattering eight Bear hits to secure a 7-3 triumph at Central Park.

Dropping it down

The game's tempo was established early as All-County second sacker Lizzy Olmstead opened the game by legging out an infield single. She quickly stole second base before Angie Gaffney sacrificed her to third.
All-County catcher Jen Marshall followed with the first of her game-high three runs batted in with a sacrifice bunt off Central southpaw Erica Yunka.
Central tied matters in the bottom of the first as All-County infielder McKenzie Burns followed Olmstead's script by legging out a bunt single. Keeria McKenzie sacrificed her to second base before Gina Thompson cracked an RBI triple over Shawnna Henry's head, 1-1.
NCT took the lead for good in the third on Marshall's second sacrifice bunt of the game plating Olmstead, 2-1.
Gaffney scored on an error and Kelsey McManus scored on a two-out RBI single by Mikayla Miller, 4-1.
Marshall's RBI single in the fourth plated Henry before McManus' sacrifice fly drove in Olmstead, 6-1.
Central countered behind Gina Thompson's second hit, an RBI single plating Sam Berberette. But CHS missed a golden opportunity stranding the bases loaded (nine runners all told) when Antczak fanned Brooke Wardlow, 6-2.
NCT scored its final run when Gaffney reached on an infield single, advanced on a passed ball and scored when the first baseman came off the bag for a throw, 7-2.
CHS closed the scoring when McKenzie scored on a Yunka RBI single.

Antczak rules

Antczak faced 33 batters in seven innings to improve to 5-1. She yielded one walk and fanned nine.
Yunka (0-1) absorbed the loss but deserved a better fate. She issued one walk and fanned three permitting seven runs, but only three earned.
Thompson and Yunka each had two hits for the hosts, who dipped to 1-3 overall.
Defensively, both teams committed four errors. It wasn't the physical errors that irked the Bear coaches.
"We had poor execution early on," admitted Central High's second-year Head Coach Tyson Ellis. "Mental errors are killing us and at one point we watched seven pitches go by without lifting the bat off our shoulders. That just can't happen. We won't make things happen swinging the bat like that."
What was the difference?
"You could see tonight how many of their kids play year-around," replied Ellis. "We only have a few. Still, if you take away some of mental mistakes, it could have easily been a 5-3 or 5-4 game. I thought Erica (Yunka) really pitched well for her first start this year."

Keys to victory

Besides, Olmstead, Gaffney and Miller each collecting two hits, Marshall explained the difference in the game.
"Tonight, we came alive early," said Marshall, who finished 1-for-2 overall with three RBIs. "We saw they were playing back, so we took advantage and started dropping them (bunts) down."
How's the health of the squad?
"It's hard to play ball, when everybody isn't 100 percent," said Marshall. "The guys we had in there stepped up."
And Antczak's mound efforts?
"We knew she wasn't 100 percent tonight," she added. "So we had to support her offensively and play well defensively. I thought she kept moving the ball around well."
For her part Olmstead finished 2-for-3 with a game-high three runs scored.
"We played real smart tonight," admitted the 16-yewar-old Olmstead. "Continuity has kinda been an issue with us so far, with so many people in and out of the lineup. Still we did a real good job of applying pressure to their defense.
"I was disappointed last night, but you've got to learn (from the loss) and move on."
Second-year Shark Head Coach Mettina Couet agreed with her player's assessments.
"We executed well in the beginning," Couet said. "But (offensively) we're still not where we need to be. And I don't want to talk about the team dealing with sickness. That's just an excuse. It's something every team has to deal with. Our kids were down last night. We made a lot of adjustments and I'm proud of how we used that game as a building block for today."

Nature Coast Technical 7, Central 3
123 456 7 R H E
NCT 103 201 0 -- 7 11 4
CEN 100 010 1 -- 3 8 4
NCT - Antczak and Marshall.
CEN - Yunka and Gina Thompson.
W - Antczak (5-1). L - Yunka (0-1).
2B - none.
3B - Gina Thompson (CEN).
HR - none.
Records - Nature Coast Technical (5-1 overall), Central (1-3 overall).