Coach Crumbley has reached a milestone that no one else has ever achieved in the history of Hillsborough county baseball. He has achieved the 700 win mark over his storied 31 year career and helped lead Steinbrenner to its first ever Saladino tournament win. The Saladino tournament is a Hillsborough public high school only tournament with all 30 teams from around the county. They play a group round robin and the winner of each group advances to the tournament playoffs. The Steinbrenner Warriors have never made it past the quarterfinals of the tournament in our history, but this time it would be different.
The tournament started off with a close win for the Warriors as they squeaked by with a 4-3 win against he Durant Cougars, holding off a late run by the Cougars. The Warriors would then move on to take on Armwood in another group play match. The Warriors handily defeated Armwood 10-0 with scoring +2 runs in three consecutive innings, continuing the Warriors hot streak. For the final group match the Warriors took on Wharton to try and seal their advancement to the tournament. In a close, late inning game the Warriors were victorious 8-6, guaranteeing their advancement to the tournament quarterfinals for only the second time in warrior history. This is where Steinbrenner’s, and Crumbley’s, run to history started to break into the realm of possibility.
Crumbley, at this point, had 697 career wins, so if he were able to win the quarterfinals, the semifinals, and then the finals, he would be able to cap off his amazing 700 wins with an even sweeter championship victory, and that is exactly what the Warriors set out to do. The quarterfinal match was against talented side Brandon. The Warriors gave up an early run in the second inning and trailed until the top of the fourth when the Warriors struck back and tied the ball game at 1-1. The Eagles and the Warriors went back and forth but neither were able to pull out a lead over the other and the game extended into extra innings. The Warriors took the lead in the top of the 8th and never let it go, taking home the victory 2-1 in the quarterfinals. Steinbrenner’s next opponent was the Riverview sharks in the semifinals. The Warriors came out of the gates slow in this game, letting up 3 runs by the top of the fourth inning but came up big when it mattered most scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the 7th inning to take the lead and move onto the championship.
The final opponent the Warriors had to go through was the perennial powerhouse, the Alonso Ravens. Having another rough start the Warriors gave up 4 runs in the first inning, leading to an early deficit that would take all the Warriors skill to get out of. After three slow innings to start the championship game, the Warriors bats heated up in the fourth as they scored two runs in the 4th and proceeded to score 2 more over the next three innings to tie up the game by the 7, extending the game to extra innings. The Warriors and ravens battled it out until the Warriors pulled ahead in the top of the 10th to take the lead, and eventually, took home the championship for both Steinbrenner and to help make Coach Crumbley’s 700th win even more meaningful.
“It was pretty special, it was great to be able to celebrate the victory with the kids and it is a huge tournament and a huge milestone for me,” said Crumbley on what this milestone meant to him and this great Warriors team.
Online Sports Editor // Adler Shannon
