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Hernando Today

Pre-Majors Headed To State Final

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By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.

Hernando Today

Published: July 16, 2008

Through adays of the Dixie Pre-Majors (ages 14-17) and Majors (ages 15-19) All-Stars State Tournaments at Chipley High, both Hernando County teams remained alive.

The Hernando Pre-Majors stood at 3-0 pending yesterday's meeting with tournament host Chipley, already assured of a spot in the championship game.

After losing their first game in extra innings, the Hernando Majors pulled out two do-or-die victories and hoped to survive again versus unbeaten Jacksonville last night.

Coming together quickly

Prior to leaving for states last week, Hernando Pre-Majors Head Coach Frank Vitale expressed concern over his team's lack of preparation time.

Yet this group of mostly junior-varsity level stars from three different high schools has come together quickly, pulling out two close contests before winning in an eventual blowout Monday.

Down to its last out in Saturday's tournament opener against Sneads, Hernando rallied for three runs to capture a back-and-forth affair, 10-8.

Hernando built a 5-0 lead and led again at 6-5, only to fall behind 8-6 in the fourth inning.

Down 8-7 with two outs in the top of the seventh, Eddie Castro scored on a wild pitch to tie the game. James Desmond and Brian Bradshaw followed with a walk and single respectively, and scored on Brett Maggard's two-run double.

Bradshaw went 3-for-3 with two walks and scored four times, while Patrick Dwyer came on to pitch in the fourth and shut down Sneads the rest of the way.

In Sunday's second game versus Marion County, Hernando went in front 3-0 in the first inning on a run-scoring single by Dwyer and two bases-loaded walks by Castro and Austin Rollins.
Maggard and Justin Gates combined to hold off Marion on the mound, giving Hernando a 5-4 win.

Hernando downed West Volusia on Monday, 12-2 in six innings. However, the score was tied at two until Hernando exploded for three in the fifth and seven in the sixth.

J.R Wright, Robert Stanley and Cody Caltagirone combined to do the pitching, while Dwyer went 4-for-4 with three runs scored and Ryan Clark 3-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBI.

"Now that we've played three games, we have pretty good pitching," Vitale said. "The defense has been good and we've come up with the key hit when we need it. That's the M.O. for a good baseball tournament."

A Hernando loss to Chipley would create a three-way tie, along with Marion County. However, since Hernando has played one more game than the other two, Chipley and Marion would play each other with the winner going on to face Hernando for the title.

Battling back

The Hernando Majors have lived dangerously throughout the tournament, not only battling back from an opening-round loss but twice digging out of early holes.

First came a difficult 9-8 defeat in eight innings against Marion County on Saturday. Hernando received a two-run home run off the bat of Tom Dwyer, helping the local bunch build a 4-0 lead through two innings.

A series of defensive miscues contributed to Marion going ahead 6-4 in the fourth. The game was tied at eight in the seventh inning when the sky opened up, causing a three-hour rain delay.

When play resumed in sloppy conditions, Marion scratched out a run in the top of the eighth and sent Hernando into the loser's bracket.

The following day against Wahneta, Hernando fell behind 5-0 in the first inning but responded with 13 in the top of the second and cruised to an easy victory, 17-5 in five innings.

Kenny Treverton went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs, and Kai Huff and Dwyer added two hits apiece. Dwyer and Monte Ketchum both contributed home runs.

On Monday, Hernando beat four-time defending state champion Polk, 6-5, but once again found itself quickly down 5-0 by the second inning.

Dustin Upshaw led off the bottom of the third with Hernando's first hit and the tide began to turn. The Brooksville crew tied the game in that inning and received five innings of shutout relief from Joey Budnick.

Kai Huff stole second after a leadoff single in the fifth, and advanced to third on Kyle Neal's fly out. Bryan Nicolini followed by beating out an infield single to the shortstop, allowing Huff to come around.

"It shows a lot of heart," Hernando Head Coach Donnie Whitehead said. "A lot of these kids are returning from teams like the Pre-Majors in 2005 that went to the World Series. They understand the competition level in the state of Florida. They've lost a couple heartbreakers over the years, so they're battle tested.

"We're playing pretty solid defensively, getting good pitching performances in relief. But we're not really hitting on all cylinders. We've had a couple of big innings in the tournament and that's it. Over the course of a ball game we haven't put a whole lot of pressure on people."

Sports writer Chris Bernhardt Jr. can be reached at (352) 544-5288 or cbernhardt@hernandotoday.com.

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