Winter Park Stays Atop 9A-6 With Win Over Timber Creek

The Winter Park Wildcats are on a roll. They came into Wednesday’s 9A-6 matchup on a six game winning streak, looking to extend it to seven. They ended up defeating the Timber Creek Wolves by a score of 10-0.

Timber Creek (7-5) didn’t go down easily though. During the first three innings the Wolves put together an impressive defensive display to back their starting pitcher, Michael Demo. Shortstop Matt Garcia scooped a hard hit ball to end the bottom of the third inning, keeping the score 3-0. Parker Smith also made a few impressive diving catches out in right field to keep the Wildcats honest.

Despite the defensive wizardry, Winter Park (10-3) eventually broke the game open in the fourth inning, scoring five runs off a string of consecutive hits.

Elijah Cabell led the attack on the day, connecting for a two-run home run in his first at-bat of the game. It left the park in a hurry, sailing over the left field fence to give his team a quick 2-0 lead.

“He’s been awesome,” manager Dee Brown said after the game. “He leads by example and he plays hard. They feed off of it. He’s been getting on base, he’s been hitting the ball, but his defense has been awesome too.”

Elijah followed up his first-inning home run by adding a double in the second inning.

“Our team is working hard every day in practice,” Elijah said after the game. “We’ve taken each game slowly. We have a target on our back because we’re the number one team in the district, so we’re just looking one game at a time.”

The Wildcats came into Wednesday’s game the fifth ranked team in the Orlando area, and the twenty-third ranked team in The High School Baseball Network’s power rankings.

They’ve scored less than five runs only four times in 13 games.. On the year they’ve scored 90 runs, averaging close to seven runs per game. Winter Park’s offense is a powerhouse, but manager Dee Brown stresses that their pitching and defense is doing well, too.

“Our pitchers are holding it together really well,” he said after the game. “The numbers are a little funny when you take a look, but we had a lot of errors in the first couple games that makes our pitchers numbers look a little different, but lately our defense has been awesome.”

Speaking of pitchers, Winter Park starter Jaison Heard pitched a shutout. He threw a complete game, and also drove in a run on the offensive side.

“I enjoy hitting, but every time I get on the bump I love it,” Jaison Heard said after the game. “I don’t have the bombs yet. Hopefully that’s coming soon, but that’s not my focus. My focus is to get up to the plate and drive the ball hard every single time that I can.”

The game ended in the bottom of the sixth inning, after Winter Park crossed the ten run threshold.

“We have them again tomorrow at their place,” Manager Dee Brown said. “They’re a good ball club, and we just need to come out and play our game.”

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