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Hernando Today

Rivera: Hero For The Night

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By C.J. RISAK

Hernando Today correspondent

Published: June 27, 2008

WILDWOOD - What started with concern Tuesday night evolved into some easiness. That transform morphed into genuine worry before jubilation was attained.

That would describe the experience that Spring Hill National - and its fans - had to endure in their second-round, extra-inning AAA Majors (ages 11-12) All-Stars District 6 Tournament game against Bushnell during its second-round affair at Wildwood's Millennium Park.

Walks to SH Nationals's Jon Waskowitz and Jonathan Brosher to lead off the bottom of the seventh set the table for Josh Rivera, and his base hit to right field delivered Waskowitz with the game-winning run in this 11-10 thriller.

The victory puts SHN (2-0) into a third-round winner's bracket game opposite Spring Hill American (1-0), which won its opener over Sumter and had a second-round bye. That game was set for 8 p.m. Wednesday at Millennium.

"The kids didn't lose heart," said SHN Head Coach Rob Gomez. "We were hitting the gaps early; then they were hitting the gaps. But that's baseball, and this was a great game."

It's Bushnell early

It was Bushnell that struck first, Garrett Cave drilling a Frankie Gomez pitch over the leftfield fence in the first inning to make it 3-0. But it didn't take SHN long to strike back, scoring five in the second on back-to-back-to-back doubles by Rivera, Zach Guerin and David Bailey, Rivera's scoring one run, Guerin's two and Bailey's one. A Ryan Kaplan sacrifice fly delivered the fifth run.

SHN added five more in the third, aided by two Bushnell errors. Brosher and Guerin each doubled in a run, Waskowitz singled one in, one scored on an error and another when Guerin tried to stretch his double into a triple.

That made it 10-3 after three, and when Bushnell went down in order in the fourth, SHN's advantage seemed safe enough.

A two-run double by Garrett McMullen and a two-run triple by Trey Roberts, who scored when the throw to third went awry, trimmed SHN's lead to 10-8 after five.

In the sixth, Mitchell Alexander opened the inning with a bunt single and Hunter Truesdale - who had started the fifth-inning rally with a lead-off triple - slugged a game-tying home run to left, knotting it at 10-all.

But as their coach noted, SHN didn't lose heart. Bushnell did get a two-out double from Jacob Brown, but he was stranded there. SHN took advantage of the opening, with Rivera delivering his second hit and second RBI of the game.

"This is a special bunch of kids here," Gomez added. "They play well together, they complement each other."

San Antonio comeback clips Hernando

In the other winner's bracket tilt, a sixth-run fourth inning seemed to put Hernando into the driver's seat in its second-round game against San Antonio.

But San Antonio answered Hernando's rally by scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth and adding seven more in the fifth to win, 10-7.

It was a heart-breaking loss for Hernando, dropping it into the loser's bracket.

Turner Stalnaker doubled in two runs in the fifth and Justin Hobby smashed a three-run homer to propel San Antonio to the triumph.

Hernando is now idle until 6 p.m. Thursday, when it will play an opponent to be determined.

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