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Hernando Today

Late Magic Carries Spring Hill (Again)

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By C.J. RISAK

Hernando Today correspondent

Published: July 5, 2008

BELLEVIEW - Still waiting.
No complaints, mind you. A win is, after all, a win. And in the state tournament, it takes the team that acquires it another step toward its goal -- a championship.
Spring Hill's Belles Division (ages 13-15) All-Stars waited until its final at-bat, for the second-straight game, to acquire the necessary offense to edge a tough Mulberry team, 4-3 Saturday in the Dixie League State Softball Tournament at Belleview's Sports Complex.
That left Spring Hill (3-0) as the lone unbeaten team in the eight-team, double elimination format.
Its next opponent was to be Chipley at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Sports Complex.
The seventh-inning rally against Mulberry -- Spring Hill beat Franklin County by scoring six runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to break a 3-3 tie -- was the first time in the game Spring Hill had the lead, and it was the third run it produced without the benefit of a hit. It started with a walk to Brooke Young, who stole second and scored when Megan Baker's ground ball was booted.
Which brings us to the Spring Hill Head Coach, Louie Caiazzo, who is the one still waiting for his team's offense to make a much-needed, and much-anticipated, appearance?
"We're scratching and clawing," he said. "I'm still waiting for the bats to wake up. I wish they'd stop giving me a freakin' heart attack."
Mulberry got on the board first with a two-run first inning that featured doubles by Erica Morrissey and Amber Davis. One run scored on an error, the second on Davis' hit.
Spring Hill got a run back in the second, Shannon Cataldo singling and eventually scoring on a wild pitch, then tied the game in the third on an inning-opening walk to Gina Thompson, who stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Linda Thompson's sacrifice fly.
Rose Stevens' run-producing single put Mulberry up 3-2 in the fourth, with Morrissey -- who went 3-for-3 at the plate -- scoring her second run.
Spring Hill retied it in the fifth on a walk to Angie Gaffney, a wild pitch and back-to-back ground outs, Thompson's delivering the run.
All of which led to an eventful seventh inning.
Mulberry did not go quietly after Spring Hill took the lead in the top half of the frame, putting its first two runners on base and moving them to second and third with two out. But Davis suffered a shoulder injury while batting, forcing Erica Watts to take over at the plate. After fighting off a couple of Adams' two-strike pitches, Watts struck out to end the game.
Leaving Spring Hill eying that title, even with little offensive (three hits vs. Mulberry) help.

Spring Hill 4, Mulberry 3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 -- R H E
SH 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 -- 4 3 1
MUL 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 -- 3 6 2
SH - Baker, Sager (3), Adams (5) and Adams, Sager (5).
MUL - P. Morrissey, Shiber (4), Watts (7) and E. Morrissey.
2B - E. Morrissey, Davis (MUL).
Records - Spring Hill (3-0). Mulberry (2-1).

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