college recruiter was at the tournament. It was cool just walking around with all of the coaches in their school colors. Tony was called into a game to close out the last three innings. He would face some good hitters, there by invite only. He struck out the first batter, in fact he went on to strike out the first 8 batters that he faced. The 9th batter hit a soft grounder to the third baseman who booted the ball, runner safe on an error. Before throwing another pitch Tony turned and fired the ball to first and picked off the runner. Eight straight K's and a pick! Within an hour I got a call from the Gator's pitching coach, Ross Jones, the Florida Gators head recruiter asking if he could come by our home tomorrow to discuss an opportunity to pitch for the Florida Gators. The meeting was exciting to say the least. Tony had always kept his grades up so the scholarship he got was a combination of academic and athletic. I don't care how athletic you are, you still need good grades. If your kids don't believe me then have them call Tony. While we were speaking with Gators Coach Ross Jones, Tony got a call that went to his answering machine. It was from Turtle Thomas, head recruiter from LSU. The message said "Tony, don't sign with UF. Whatever they offer we can match".
Tony decided to go with the University of Florida Gators!
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