Three Polk Teams In Best-of-Three Regional Finals

LAKELAND | Lakeland knocked off the state's top team, Sarasota, in the Class 6A, Region 2 semifinals last week, but head coach Mike Campell is quick to note that the Dreadnaughts have yet to win anything. That can change tonight or Saturday.

The Dreadnaughts (18-8) are one of three Polk County teams playing in a regional finals best-of-three series today. They travel to Winter Garden to play West Orange (27-3).

The other matchups are Winter Haven (23-6) at Brandon (24-6) and Fort Meade (17-13) at St. Petersburg Northside Christian (18-11).

All games start at 4 p.m. with a second game starting 30 minutes after the completion of the first. A third game will be played at 1 p.m. Saturday if necessary.

This is the first year of the best-of-three format for the regional final. While Campbell favored the new format, he would have preferred to play the game earlier in the week instead of having a week between games.

"The Sarasota thing is behind us," Campbell said. "Now it's time to get refocused."

Lakeland has used stellar pitching and defense to get this far, especially in the past four games.

The Dreadnaughts won three of the four games, despite being outhit in each game.

Against West Orange, Campbell will stay with his normal rotation of Matt Gendron (9-1, 1.79 ERA), Josh Lucas (7-3, 1.35 ERA) and Drew Hutchinson (5-3, 1.62 ERA).

The Dreadnaughts have just three batters hitting over .300, Taylor Wrenn (five HR, 29 RBI, .357 BA), Daniel Rockhold (three HR, 18 RBI, .340 BA) and Keon Broxton (13 RBI, .325 BA).

Still, Lakeland has gotten clutch hits when it has needed them and has been able to manufacture runs.

Lakeland is looking to return to the state tournament for the second time in the past seven years. The Dreadnaughts also went in 2001.

Eight Polk County teams, including Fort Meade and Winter Haven, have been to the state baseball tournament during that time.

[ Roy Fuoco can be reached at roy.fuoco@theledger.com or 863-802-7549. ]