Prep Baseball Report

Venice Takes Down Calvary Christian Backed by Jacob Faulkner


Rocco Iervasi
Florida Director of Operations/Area Scout

Venice, FL - Friday night featured a matchup between two teams in the Top 10 of our Power25 rankings. No. 5 Venice took on No. 7 Calvary Christian (Clearwater). It was a pitcher’s duel early between 2020 Princeton commit Jacob Faulkner for Venice, and 2021 USF commit Jack Cebert for Calvary. Faulkner was dominant as he only allowed one hit in six innings pitched. He works from a sidearm slot with plenty of run on the fastball, and an effective sweeping slider that was getting swings and misses all game long. He would finish with six shutout innings and seven strikeouts.

For Calvary, Jack Cebert was working 83-86 mph with his fastball and added a slow, above average curveball. He was sharp early with three shutout innings and four strikeouts to start the game, but things unraveled in the 4th.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the 4th when Venice struck together five runs. It started with a successful suicide squeeze bunt from 2022 Marek Houston. 2021 Florida commit Michael Robertson followed that up a few batters later with a 2-RBI single. Robertson reached base multiple times in the game and was a force on the basepaths. Venice would go up 5-0 after a big 4th.

Calvary brought in 2021 USF commit Tyler Dietz in relief and he was electric. He has made a significant jump with his fastball up to 93 mph. He was 90 mph when we last saw him this summer. He also showed confidence and feel for his slider.

Faulkner had a no-hitter going through 5 ⅔ innings until 2021 NC State commit Tommy White broke that up. Calvary was able to string together some offense in the 7th, but it wasn’t enough as Venice would take this one 6-2.

 

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