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Sports

Carrollwood Day School Baseball is Building for Success

A rundown of baseball season at CDS

Carrollwood Day School's baseball team is still in its infancy. However, Head Coach David Clement has some key elements in place, and they are moving up the ladder in their class and district.

This season, CDS resides in class 1A District 9. That means they play other schools that have similar enrollment numbers.

Here's a look at District 9 in order of school, 2010 record, and 2010 district record:

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Cambridge Christian, 23-5, 11-0

Canterbury, 16-12, 10-3

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Carrollwood Day School, 11-8, 7-5

Lakeside Christian, 10-12, 6-6

Keswick Christian, 1-9, 1-6

Tampa Bay Christian, 1-13, 1-7

Academy at the Lakes, 0-10, 0-9

Obviously, CDS is looking up at Canterbury and Cambridge, but both of those schools have older programs. The Patriots suffered merciless defeats at their hands last season. In three games with Canterbury, the Patriots were outscored 49-7. In two games with Cambridge, they were outscored 59-1.

However, it can be said that CDS is good enough to beat up on the bottom four-fifths of the district. They pounded TB Christian 19-2 in the first game of this season. They knocked Keswick Christian around 16-5 in February, and Academy at the Lakes 10-0 shortly after that. They crushed Lakeside in early March, 16-1, and beat Keswick again later in the month.

They have a huge test coming up April 5, when they visit Cambridge. They don’t play Cambridge or Canterbury again in the regular season, but you can bet that they will have to play through one of them to get out of districts this year.

Coach Clement thinks they’ve got a shot.

“This year’s team is good enough to beat either one of them.”

CDS hit the wall at The Dunedin Spring Classic. St. Petersburg blew them out in the first round 13-1, St. Pete Catholic beat them 15-5 and River Ridge dropped them 10-0 in five innings.

A coach takes a gamble playing out of their class like that. For instance, while CDS is in class 1A, St. Pete is in 6A, River Ridge 4A, and St. Pete Catholic 3A. These teams would never play each other in regular season or playoffs.

Coach Clement has been with the team from the ground up. He also runs a baseball club called Bulls Baseball where many of his CDS players and players from other high schools play. Clement started the ball club and it attracts a lot of North Pinellas County ball-players. Assistant Coach John Syron has been with the CDS team from the beginning as well.

The team is a very young team. There is one senior, four juniors, three sophomores, four freshmen, and three 8th graders. 

That is an advantage CDS has over larger, public schools; the long term ability to incubate and develop talent.

There are a few athletes rising through the ranks at CDS.

Sophomore Anthony Antolio is second on the team in hits (17) and is currently batting .436. According to Clement Antolino has, “a lot of pop in the bat” and is considered on of their “stronger hitters”.

Freshman Colin Campell is in his second year with the team. As an 8th grader last year, Campbell hit .393 (2nd on team) with 24 hits (2nd) and 22 RBIs (3rd). This year he is batting .387 with 12 hits and 14 RBIs. Campbell has, “the sweetest swing” according to his coach.

Freshman Jack Syron started as an 8th grader also and is the team’s best, underclassman option at catcher.

Junior Alec Clement has a tall 6’4” frame, and is one of their better pitchers. He’s struck out 27 this year, and threw a no-hitter against Academy at the Lakes this season.

CDS is definitely a small fish, but they are a growing fish in a pretty small pond. This could be their year.

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