Countryside High Falls in Regional Baseball Playoff Game to Wiregrass Ranch

The Countryside High School baseball team once again failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs, dropping a 5-2 decision to Wiregrass Ranch in a regional quarterfinal game played at home on Saturday afternoon in Clearwater.

Both teams scored twice in the first inning, and the Cougars chased Bulls starter Zach Drury from the game with two runs in the bottom of the inning.

But Drury bounced back after being replaced on the mound by his brother, Austin, to hit a big two-out, two-RBI single in the second inning to give Wiregrass Ranch (18-9) a 4-2 lead it would never relinquish.

Bulls head coach Jeff Swymer said the victory, the first playoff win in the program's history, was a big one for his young team.

"It's huge. To me I think it can change the culture of a program," Swymer said after the game.

"You beat a good program like Countryside with some good tradition, it's gonna help our program down the road next year. So it's huge for us."

On the other side of the field, Cougars head coach Kemo O'Sullivan was left to lament another tough late season loss and ponder what might have been.

"Maybe we we're a little flat, we didn't seem to have that bounce," he said. "We thought we could compete with this team, and we had a chance in the first inning to really do some damage.

"We always talk about getting that big hit but we didn't get it, we just didn't get it. But that's baseball. I'm proud of this team."

Wiregrass Ranch will play the winner of the Steinbrenner and Seminole game next week.

Countryside finished the season with a 17-11 record.

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