Bulls Prepare To Face Division Foe Wharton

It has notably been the long ball that has haunted Bloomingdale pitching in its last two games. Coming off heart-breaking losses to Plant City and Alonso, the Bulls look to bounce back tomorrow when they travel to Wharton.

In conference standings, both of tomorrow's games carry heavy significance as a loss for Bloomingdale will put them further behind both Brandon and Alonso for the District 8 race for first place.

Bloomingdale (5-5-0, 2-2-0 in 6A District8) can breathe a small sigh of relief knowing they leed Wharton (5-4-0, 1-3-0 in 6A District8) by a game as a result of their 6-5 victory in February. However, the Bulls know that each breath must be quick as that game came down to the last inning as Wharton scored five runs in the seventh before finally being shut down by Bloomingdale pitching.

In their first meeting, Bloomingdale batters Austin Wilson and Nolan Schrenker combined for two home runs and four runs batted in as they demolished the Wildcats pitching early.

It was the combined efforts of both Austin and senior Robby Kalaf that gave the Bulls the victory in February. Together, they pitched seven innings while striking out eight Wildcat batters and allowing only a .200 batting average for the game.

That victory gave Bloomingdale an early edge over Wharton in the District 8 standings. Despite the Bulls two game losing streak, they have not givenWharton an opportunity to catch them.

Wharton will bring a lot of offensive firepower to the plate on Tuesday. Led by junior third basemen Colin Woody (.444 batting average in 30 plate appearences) the Wildcats bring a .330 batting average into the two game home stand.

The Wildcats also have one of Hillsborough County's best pitchers in junior Shaun Rubin.

Rubin, who so far in 2011 has been the bright spot on Wharton's staff, has thrown three complete games, earning three wins, fanning 16 with strikeouts and has an impressive earned run average of 0.36.

Bloomingdale will travel to face the Wildcats with offensive weapons of their own, most notably unior infielder Richie Martin.

In 36 plate appearances this season, Martin has a .414 batting average and runs the bases with a fiery aggression. In total, the Bloomingdale bats are averaging .278 at the plate in 2011.

It may be the Bulls pitching that lead the way to wins on Tuesday. Led by senior Robby Kalaf (.044 earned run average, 31 innings pitched, 41 strike outs and 2 wins), the Bloomingdale staff must keep the Wildcat batters on edge and not commit costly errors or surrender game haunting home runs.

Tommorow's District 8 games will begin at 3 p.m. in Tampa at Wharton High School.