Long Night

In their opening two games of the Dixie Youth League AAA Minors (ages 9-10) State Baseball Tournament, Spring Hill American fell behind in each game, but battled back to win.

Saturday against MVP Poinciana, Spring Hill trailed 2-0 before scoring five runs in their last at-bat to win.

Less than 24 hours later, Okeechobee American jumped on Spring Hill for three runs in the first inning before Spring Hill roared back in a 13-6 victory.

But on Monday night in a winner's bracket game against West Seminole at Aldine Combee Park in Polk County, the SH American comeback did not materialize as West Seminole banged out three home runs to cruise to an 11-0 shutout of Spring Hill in a game halted after five innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.

The loss now puts SH American (8-2 overall, 2-1 states) in the loser's bracket of the 12-team, double-elimination tournament.

On Tuesday night, SH was slated for a rematch against Okeechobee American in hopes of keeping their dreams of a state title alive.

Down early

On Monday, those dreams fell early and hard as West Seminole had a home run in the first inning and then put the game out of reach in the third by scoring six runs against the Hernando County club.

It did not help SH American that they committed five errors in the game that helped five unearned runs to score.

"I told them after the game we hadn't made as many errors in the nine other tournament games combined as we did tonight," said SH American skipper Al Sorrentino. "We didn't play the normal defense that we're accustomed too.

"But its like (assistant) coach (Jerry) Myers said. "We got it out of our system and now we'll move on."

Spring Hill got behind again early against West Seminole as Paxton Rigby hit a solo home run in the first inning.

In the third, West Seminole combined five hits and two Spring Hill errors for six more runs.

Collin McLaughlin hit a solo homer while Rigby, Austin Makarewicz, Vincenzo Catanza and Dean Drafts all drove in runs.

In the fourth, West Seminole scored a single run and then in the fifth, Kyle Gibson hit a three-run homer to end the scoring.

"We played great," said West Seminole manager Brian Kouwenhoven. "We knew coming into this game that it would be a pivotal won. In any double elimination tournament, if you can get past the third game undefeated, it really puts you in a good spot."

The same cannot be said for Spring Hill as they fall into the lethal loser's bracket.

On Tuesday they'll play Okeechobee, who they beat 13-6 on Sunday night.

Matt Warner collected the only hit for Spring Hill Monday night when he singled in the second inning, but Sorrentino believes his club can come back.

"When these kids go home tonight, they'll probably be asking to stop for hamburgers someplace and forget all about this loss," remarked Sorretino.

The Spring Hill skipper also hopes that his team takes something positive from the defeat.

"Hopefully, they learned something tonight," added Sorrentino. "We ended up losing one time in the district tournament and still won it.

"We've been resilient all season long and they've kept their confidence and composure," said Sorrentino. "We'll come back tomorrow and I'm pretty confident that we can come back and do business Tuesday."