Bats Awaken Just In Time

BELLEVIEW - The final outcome - 9-3 in favor of Spring Hill's Belle Division All-Stars - would not give an accurate picture of what this game was.

Close. In fact, it was as close as the fall of a footstep and the tag of a glove, a matter of which came first.

With this second-round Dixie League All-Star State Tournament game between Spring Hill and Franklin County knotted at 3-all in the bottom of the sixth inning, Spring Hill loaded the bases. With two outs, Gina Thompson sent a dribbler toward first, which Kendall Haray snared and tried to tag Thompson. She did it, the question was did Thompson beat the play. After much deliberation, the umpires ruled in favor of Thompson, allowing her to bring home the go-ahead run.

Spring Hill, which had just four hits in the game entering the sixth, doubled its total in that half-inning; including an RBI base hit by Linda Thompson - who also had a double and a triple in the game - and a two-run single by Alexis Adams that followed Gina Thompson's hit.

"We're a good hitting team, but we're not hitting the ball like we should," remarked Spring Hill Head Coach Louie Caiazzo. "We have the talent on the team, our pitching is good, and our defense is good. We're just not getting the hits the way we should. Fortunately, we have two wins."

First blood

Spring Hill (2-0) opened the scoring with Linda Thompson tripling home Gina Thompson, who had walked, in the first. Franklin County knotted it at 1-all on Haray's base hit in the second, then went up a run on a run-scoring error in the top of the third.

Spring Hill tied matters in the bottom of that inning without getting a hit, thanks to three walks and a wild pitch.

The fifth inning was similar, Franklin County taking a short-lived lead on Carly Sapp's RBI single (she had three hits in the game) in the top half of the frame and Spring Hill tying it on a passed ball, Linda Thompson scoring after she had doubled.