When they met in the season-opening Diamond Classic a month ago, both Clearwater and Clearwater Central Catholic were searching for direction heading into the regular season.

Clearwater was trying to incorporate a slew of underclassmen into the lineup while waiting for key players to return from the basketball team, while CCC was dealing with injuries that forced longtime manager Todd Vaughan to use a couple of practice squad players in the tournament.

But ever since splitting a pair of games in that preseason series, the clubs have been headed in opposite directions.

The Marauders dropped four of its first six games, all in nail-biting fashion, with every game being decided by one run.

Clearwater, meanwhile, rebounded from a 2-2 start to win four of its past five games, including a 3-2 win over perennial conference power Seminole last Friday.

Those courses stayed the same Monday night, as the Tornadoes (7-3) shook off an early 4-1 deficit to drop the host Marauders by an 8-4 score, highlighted by Andrew McCormick’s pitching and hitting.

The senior starter settled down after allowing three runs in the first inning to hold the Marauders to one run over the next three-plus frames, and he contributed to his own cause at the plate, ripping three hits including a towering three-run homer that broke the game open in the fourth inning.

“Pitching, I started off a little slower than I wanted to… but I ended up throwing good after that,” McCormick said after the game. “Hitting… I let (the ball) get deep on me, then teed away and finished it.”

Although he couldn’t finish the game on the mound, teammate Rob Milliken was up to the task when McCormick got into a jam in the fifth inning with the Tornadoes clinging to a 7-4 lead.

After walking the first two batters of the frame, Coach Ken Clawson pulled his starter and brought in Milliken. Two pitches later the threat was over, thanks to a double play and a pop out, and effectively, so was the game.

“I told them when we came in after the top of the second, I said we can’t give them any more five and six out innings, and we didn’t after that,” Clawson said after the win. “Our pitchers stayed in the strike zone pretty well and didn’t give them a lot.”

How does the coach explain his team’s quick turnaround after dropping the second game of the Diamond Classic, 12-2, and two of the first four games of the season?

“We’ve done a pretty good job of hitting… and we’ve seen some awfully good pitching lately," Clawson said. "That’s given us confidence. We’re just about all the way where (we want to be) at.”