Jitters Everywhere

Any time a team plays its first-ever game for a national championship, no matter if it's at the professional, collegiate or youth sports level, first-game jitters could factor in.
That certainly appeared the case Monday afternoon when Spring Hill's AAA Majors (ages 11-12) All-Stars committed an uncharacteristic six errors in losing to Mississippi in the opening round of the Dixie Youth League Baseball World Series Monday in Covington, Ga., 8-3.
From the beginning Monday the Spring Hill club, under Head Coach Shawn Laferty, had huge troubles in the field as the setback dropped it into the loser's bracket of this double-elimination tournament.
"The first play of the game we made a throwing error and then made another error and a couple of mental mistakes," recalled Laferty. "That first inning just got us started so badly I was saying to myself, 'Jeez, you're kidding me."
Spring Hill (9-4 overall, 0-1 Series), scheduled to play South Carolina Tuesday night, made two errors in the opening inning that gave the Mississippi club four unearned runs and a nice cushion.
Spring Hill did manage to close the gap to 5-3 in the fourth inning when Vito Tambasco, Austin Treverton and Blake Laferty all drove in runs.