Spring Hill American Falls In Opener

SPRING HILL - To Spring Hill American coach Manny Voda, it was more a case of first-game nerves than anything else that cost his Dixie Youth League AA Rookie (age 7-8) team a 6-4 decision to South Lake in the opening round of the District 6 Tournament Saturday morning at Anderson Snow Sports Complex.

"They were extremely nervous today," said Voda. "It wasn't like we made 10 mistakes today. We made a couple of them early and it cost us two runs. And that's how many runs we lost by today."

South Lake outfielder Mark Coates had three hits on the day and drove home three runs as his team advanced to winner's bracket game Monday night against Ridge Manor.

Spring Hill American, who won this same district last year, will play a loser's bracket game Monday at 6 p.m. against Sumter.

Early runs

Each team scored a run early on as Coates had a RBI single in the first while Spring Hill's Braden Day led off the second with a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch, to third on a ground out by Ra'Shaad Boyce and scored on an overthrow by South Lake.

South Lake again went in front in the second when Carter Dahl reached on an infield hit and later scored on a wild pitch.

Spring Hill came back in the third and scored twice when with Richard Heffner on base, Luke Howard hit a grounder back to pitcher Jylkez Jackson. His throw went over the first baseman's head and allowed both runners to score.

In the bottom of the third, Coates again came through for South Lake with a two-run single that made it 4-3. But in the top of the fifth, Boyce reached base on an infield hit, stole second, went to third on an error by the centerfielder and scored on an overthrow.

At the end of the fifth, South Lake scored the go-ahead runs. With one out, Trista Ellis doubled and Jarrett Hatcher reached on an infield hit that scored Ellis. T. J. Kendall followed with a sacrifice fly to finish the scoring.

South Lake's pitching held Spring Hill to just two hits on the day while recording 15 strikeouts.

"It's not going to be easy for us to come back but since it's a double-elimination tournament, I think we can," said Voda.

"We made some mistakes and I'm going to talk to them about that right after the game, but we have a very good shot of coming back Monday. We won't be making those same mistakes then like we did today. We are as strong as any team in this tournament."

South Lake 6, Spring Hill American 4
SHA 012 010 - 4 2 4
SL 112 02X - 6 8 2
W -- Kendall.
L -- Day
SHN: Hatcher, Voda (3), Day (5) and Day, Howard (5).
SL: Forrest, Jackson (3), Kendall (5) and Kendall, Hatcher (3), Dahl(5).
2B -- Ellis (SL).
3B -- None.
HR -- None.
Records -- Spring Hill American 0-1; South Lake 1-0.