CRESTVIEW — Crestview High School's Roman Donofro and Choctawhatchee's Bryan Baker locked horns in an old fashion pitchers' duel Tuesday night as the Bulldogs hosted the Indians in District 2-6A baseball action.
Baker was good holding the Bulldogs to a pair of hits and one run, but Donofro was better throwing a one-hit shutout as Crestview took the 1-0 win.
Donofro finished the night with eight strikeouts and gave up just one walk.
"It felt pretty good, great actually" Donofro said. "I was throwing fastball just about every pitch for three innings straight until the seventh.
"This is definitely one of the best games I've pitched."
Baker's line was two hits, eight strikeouts and six walks.
Tate Sweatt scored the only run of the game in the Bulldog half of the fifth inning.
Sweatt led off the inning with a double down the third base line, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Hunter Sullivan.
"I thought both pitchers obviously were really, really good," Bulldog coach Tim Gillis said. "Their guy was real good but Roman matched him and got the big pitches when he needed them.
"It was big to get that lead off guy (Sweatt) on and to get to second base was even better. And then we were able to come up with a wild pitch and then put Sully got the barrel on the ball for the sac fly."
Corey Armstrong had the other hit for Crestview (5-2, 2-1), a two-out double in the sixth.
Choctaw's lone hit of the night game on a lead off single by Taylor Fought in the top of the seventh. Fought was picked off first by Bulldog catcher Austin Armstrong on a missed bunt attempt by Gaston Rickard.
Donofro said he jammed Fought with a fastball, but the ball dropped softly into shallow right field between second baseman Corey Armstrong and right fielder Jimmy Croussore.
Choctaw's only scoring threat came in the second inning. Rickard was safe at second on a Justin Abdo error to lead off the inning and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Dustin Berrong.
Indian coach L.C. Smith then elected to go with a squeeze play to score Rickard from third, but Donofro pounced on the bunt and threw Rickard out at home.
Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Donofro, Bulldogs win pitchers' duel