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Bombs Away!

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

Spring Hill’s Julian Perez, who entered the Senior Boys World Series with a team-best .590 average and three homers, smacked another tater Saturday in Covington, Ga. versus McNairy County, Tenn.

By MARTY MILLER

Hernando Today correspondent

Published: August 2, 2008

Home runs by Louis Colaiacomo, Julian Perez, David Woop and Joey Asquith paced Spring Hill to an easy first round 10-4 win over Tennessee Saturday afternoon in the opening round of the Dixie Youth League Senior Boys (age 14) World Series.
With Perez going 4-for-4 at the plate and J. T. Simpson getting three runs batted in, the Spring Hill club advanced to a winner's bracket game Sunday at 4 p.m. against North Carolina.
"I thought we played well," said Spring Hill skipper Mike Sollazzo, whose team is now 10-2 in the post-season. "We gave up a few runs early, but I think that might have been opening-game jitters. This is the first time any of these kids have been to a Dixie League World Series in their life."

Sealing the deal

Spring Hill led precariously 4-3 going into the fifth inning before they scored three runs in both the fifth and sixth inning to seal the win.
Jon Gaffney went the opening five innings for Spring Hill on the mound to get the win – his sixth of the postseason. Gaffney gave up six hits, three runs, six hits while walking none and striking out five. Woop came on to pitch the final two innings for the winners.
Sollazzo said his team had some opening-game nerves Saturday.
"They played a little nervous to start the game, the butterflies were there," he recalled. "But we began to play and hit a little better later on."
Sollazzo said that between 30 to 40 people attended the game Saturday in Georgia, but that he wasn't surprised by the turnout. "For a lot of these people, this is a once in a lifetime deal. The tournament has really treated us well."
He also said that the competition in the Senior Boys division will be tough.
"There are a couple of good teams here," he added. "But winning the first game in a double elimination tournament is a very big thing."