Last week Osceola ace Keith Weisenberg was dominant in a win over St. Pete, striking out 14 batters and walking none in the Warriors 5-3 victory, earning BHSN Athlete of the Week honors for the effort.

Afterwards the talented righty, who has an offer to go to Stanford and could be selected in the upcoming MLB draft, stressed how much he wanted to win the PCAC championship the following week.

But on Thursday night when the Warriors hosted East Lake for the title Weisenberg wasn’t nearly as sharp, as the senior surrendered two runs in the first inning and absorbed the loss in a 3-0 Eagles win that was cut short in the bottom of the seventh inning due to rain.

“It took the first inning and into the second for me to settle down, and by that time I had already given up a couple of runs,” he explained.

“We definitely could’ve played better as a team, but I wish individually that I had played better.”

The main reason the Warriors (18-6) didn’t play better could directly be attributed to Eagles pitching - while Weisenberg (3IP, 2H, 2ER, 0BB, 4K, 50P) may get all the headlines, it was East Lake starter Ryan Wall who stole the show.

After being handed the 2-0 lead in the first thanks to RBI singles by Nick DeSantis and Cameron Churchill, the junior confounded the Osceola hitters by using a variety of pitches and mixing up speeds; he allowed just a pair of hits while walking one and striking out five in five strong innings.

“Ryan had all of his pitches working,” Eagles head coach Dan Genna said. “He commanded all his pitches, inside and out. He’s was a bulldog out there for us.”

East Lake (17-7) added an insurance run in seventh when Ian Lisle led off with a double and came around on a single by Brad Depperman, and it was Depperman who had to slam the door on an Osceola rally that was cut short by rain.

After coming in and striking out the side in relief of Wall in the sixth, the senior ran in to trouble as the rain started falling in the seventh, hitting the first two batters, who then stole second and third, bringing the tying run to the plate with nobody out.

But just as Luke Hains fouled back a suicide squeeze attempt, the umps called the game, and the Eagles had earned their second straight PCAC championship.

“I like this, playing a quality opponent late before districts start,” Genna said. “It gives us an extra game to get our guys some action.”

“We’ll enjoy this for a day and then get ready to play the winner of Pinellas Park and Clearwater next week.”