Corzo Pitches Glades Day Past Wellington Christian

Glades Day’s Thomas Corzo earned the complete-game victory while recording 11 strikeouts for the Gators.

Playing its third game in as many days, the Glades Day pitching staff was worn down and banged up.

The bullpen was stretched out and in need of a savior.

Enter Thomas Corzo.

The sophomore right-hander responded with a complete-game performance to lead the Gators to an 8-1 victory over host Wellington Christian in the District 2A-12 contest played at Seminole Palms Park in Wellington on Thursday afternoon.

Glades Day (6-3) improves to 2-0 in the district, where it moves into a tie for first place with Boca Christian.

“It feels good, but we’ll see how good we are on Monday against Boca Christian,” Gators Manager Mike Underwood said. “We’ve got a couple of guys who are injured, so we’ll see if the pitching comes around. But Thomas Corzo did a nice job today. We know that he can throw strikes. He doesn’t overpower anybody and he lets his defense work for him.”

Corzo needed only 71 pitches to cruise through the Eagles’ young lineup, limiting Wellington Christian (0-3, 0-2) to three hits and one unearned run. The righty pounded the strike zone, throwing 54 of his pitches for strikes on his way to 11 strikeouts on the afternoon.

“I felt good and I felt confident coming in. Once I got in a rhythm I settled in,” Corzo said. “I knew I had to come big because our pitchers had a lot of innings this week and a lot of guys are hurt. So I knew I had to come in and pitch a good game, and I am happy that I did.”

The Eagles hitters are typically aggressive at the plate, not afraid to swing early in the counts and always trying to challenge the pitchers. Thursday’s contest was no different, as the Eagles first three hitters ground out after attacking quickly in their counts.

“I tried to get a little more off of the plate after that, try to get them to chase it and then come back at them,” Corzo admitted. “For the most part my approach was still the same, but I just tried to throw them off a little bit more.”

Corzo carried a perfect game into the bottom of the fourth inning, until freshman catcher Steven Pettet lined a single to left field.

Kyle Berkowitz bats for Wellington Christian, and the freshman lefty also got the start on the mound.

Pettet was 2-for-3 on the day.

With their starter cruising along, the Gators wasted little time in capitalizing at the plate with their chances.

After building a 2-0 lead on a pair of unearned runs in the top of the first, Glades Day began to pull away with two more in the third.

Corzo led off with his second walk of the game and Jonathan Rodriguez followed him aboard when he was able to leg out an infield single on a weak bunt he outran.

Shortstop Jonathan Leon lined an RBI single to left field to score Corzo, and Rodriguez came around on an infield throwing error to extend the lead to 4-0.

Rodriguez went 3-for-4 and Leon was 2-for-3 with three stolen bases and three runs.

The Gators were equally aggressive on the bases as they were at the plate, as they finished with nine stolen bases in all.

“They run quite a bit and we expected it,” Wellington Christian Manager Robert Pettet said. “They’re very competitive. They are a team that even when they are down, which they weren’t today, they play hard all the time. They come out to play.”

Gators left fielder Jonathan Rodriguez was 3-for-4.

The Eagles were able to avoid the shutout in the fifth inning. After Kaden Connolly was able to reach on a two-out error, pinch-hitter Juan Morales dropped an RBI single into shallow left field to send Connolly home.

Freshman Kyle Berkowitz got the start and took the loss for the Eagles. The young lefty worked three innings before coming out due to a pitch limit that will allow him to pitch again in the team’s next game on Saturday.

Berkowitz allowed one earned run on four hits and three walks while recording three strikeouts.

Junior Jason Weldgen relieved Berkowitz to work three full innings in his first action of the season on the hill.

“Jason came out and did what he was supposed to do and we’re real impressed with him,” Pettet said. “When you hit against him you gotta swing the bat because he is going to put it right there. He did a nice job and we know we will go to him again later this year.”

The two teams will meet again on March 14th at Glades Day.

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