SEMINOLE - Visited by his pitching coach during a sixth inning in which he struggled more than any other before stranding two runners to end it, Tarpon Springs pitcher Matt Klimis didn't seem a likely candidate to finish Thursday's game on the mound.
So he finished it in the batter's box, hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the sixth to invoke the 10-run mercy rule in a 14-3 win over East Ridge in a semifinal at the Steve Georgiadis Invitational at Seminole.
Klimis' deep drive to right field sends the Spongers into tonight's 7 p.m. championship game against Seminole.
Pinellas County's biggest surprise, the Spongers are now 10-2. The 10 wins lead the county, and is one more than the team had all of last year. Klimis said tonight the team will get a chance to prove to everyone it is for real.
"I think if we win the tournament it will blow some people's hair back," he said.
How big a surprise are the Spongers? Well, Klimis said he and his teammates were checking out the brackets posted near the concession stand before their game, and saw that someone had already filled it out for an East Ridge-Seminole final.
Not so fast.
"That really fired up the team," Klimis said.
It showed in the first inning, as the Spongers scored five runs. Klimis singled and scored and Chris Santucci (sac fly) and Justin Wilson (two-run double) had RBIs.
Santucci and Klimis each drove in runs in the second to make it 7-0, and that was more than enough as Klimis struck out six through five innings while allowing only a two-run home run to Myles Riddle.
With two outs in the sixth, Kyle Hammond and Tim Gayson kept the inning going with basehits to load the bases, and Klimis took a letter-high curveball about 350 feet to right.
After winning seven games in coach Dan Genna's first season and nine in his second, the Spongers have turned a corner and don't plan on looking back.
"I'm pretty surprised," said junior outfielder Karl Midgette. "I figured we'd be a pretty strong team, but I didn't know we'd be this good. Tonight will be the biggest game of the year, for sure."
