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Hernando Today

From Goat to Hero With One Swing

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By TONY CASTRO SPORTS EDITOR

Hernando Today

Published: June 22, 2008

BUSHNELL - The baseball gods must be smiling at Spring Hill American All-Star pitcher, right-hander Matt Myers.

In Friday night's fifth-round Dixie Youth League AAA Minors (ages 9-10) baseball game at the Kenny Dixon Sports Complex against league rival Spring Hill National - Myers shed his possible goat horns with one swing.

The Americans, who were handcuffed to five singles, helped themselves defensively by converting 29-of-30 chances.

SH American appeared poised to reach Saturday's 10 a.m. finale as Dante Hamilton's soft liner ticked off the opposing shortstop's glove for crucial two-base error in the third. The miscue was one of a game-high three by the Nationals, who surrendered four costly unearned runs.

Down 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth, SH National, who collected a game-high 12 hits from nine contributors, saw Mason Stacy reach base by legging out an infield tapper to shortstop.

Second sacker/catcher Luke Laferty immediately changed the complexion of the game by crushing a 2-1 offering off Myers over the leftfield fence, 2-2.

But fate soon intervened.

SH American loaded the bases the next frame off J.T. Hrobuchak and Myers helped himself by rapping a two-run single.

A subsequent error scored a third run and Matt Warner's RBI single to left capped a four-run uprising as Head Coach Al Sorrentino's SH American club eliminated SH National, 6-3.

What was Myers looking for in that critical spot?

"All I was looking for was a little hit," shrugged the 10-year-old Myers. "It's a nice win because it puts us in the finals, but I think we can play better."

Matt's hit really got us going," added the 10-year-old catcher Michael Tinari. "It helped us gets some more runs. Because we won, now we're gonna go to states. It was a big hit."

"I told Matt after he gave up the homer, baseball is a funny game," recalled Sorrentino, a former assistant baseball coach and varsity girls basketball coach at River Ridge Middle/High School, "And that he'd make up for it. Did he? His hit put us ahead to stay."

What's next?

"We all believe in each other," replied Sorrentino. "No matter what the other team does, we have been able to keep our composure. Right now, we've got South Lake tomorrow at 10 o'clock. They've got to beat us twice to win it."

Right-hander Josh Penney worked the final two frames, allowing three singles and one run - James Beck's RBI single in the sixth - to help improve the SH American squad to 5-0.

"I think pitched like I was a little rusty," sighed the 10-year-old Penney. "And we still won. If we would have lost we might not have made states. Matt's hit was so huge."

Other dugout

From the opposing dugout, National skipper John Hrobuchak felt his team played well - but not well enough.

He told his club afterward, "I'm proud of each and every one of you guys," he pointed out. "I wish we could go on."

All told, his team wasted two-hit efforts by Stacy, Laferty and Michael Cooper. The offense sputtered leaving runners on in every inning and nine all told - including six stranded in scoring position,

But perhaps the most telling was his team's three errors leading to four unearned runs.

"In the third, we dropped a liner and it cost us two runs," recalled Hrobuchak. "Then Luke (Laferty) gave us a huge lift by tying it. But the fifth was the story of our whole tournament. We had one bad inning Tuesday night (an 8-4 loss to SH American) and one bad inning tonight.

"I think we outplayed them in every other inning both games," he added. "Still, I think we lost to the best team in the tournament. I think they'll win tomorrow. I think we're the second-best team here. I know we played hard and played good baseball. We matched up well against those guys. Six inches here or there could have been the difference."

In other semifinal, South Lake (3-1) eliminated Wesley Chapel (2-2), 5-1.

Thanks to the semifinal wins, SH American and South Lake have both qualified for the Dixie State Championship beginning July 5 at East Lakeland.

On Saturday morning, Spring Hill's attempt at its sixth District 6 title in seven seasons was postponed by lightning and rain with one out in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The game will be completed at 6:30 p.m. Monday with Spring Hill American trailing 5-4.

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