Juniors, Angels share the title of county's best

The Land O'Lakes Junior Baseball All-Stars and West Pasco Angels played in different leagues on opposite sides of the county and surely paid no heed to one another's postseason run.

Yet they could not have been more alike.

Land O'Lakes (15-3) reached the Little League Southern Regional final and West Pasco (11-4) made its second straight Dixie Softball League World Series by taking similar paths.

Land O'Lakes fell one win shy of the World Series. West Pasco finished fifth in its World Series. No other ballclub in the county had more balance or won more clutch games. Simply put, they were the two best all-star teams.

Common traits shared by Land O'Lakes and West Pasco:

Outstanding pitching and depth on the mound.

Left-hander Jeff Bloomer (6-1) led a Land O'Lakes staff including Jonathan Brewster, Caz Piurowski, Jacob Neely, Wes Fuglesang and Eli Jones.

Courtney Dougherty (4-1) was West Pasco's ace, but other contributions came from Cortney Radke, Jenny Karl, Jillie Eiland, Dani Schulman, Taylor Bruckner and Samantha Stahl.

Solid defenses that turned in the occasional spectacular play, but, more importantly, the plays they should have made.

Land O'Lakes showed off with a 3-2-4 double play from Piurowski to Ricky Howroyd to Jones. West Pasco pulled of a 7-5 double play with Eiland's strong throw to Schulman.

Dominating numbers.

Land O'Lakes outscored the opposition 170-64 in 18 games, including five shutouts and two one-run wins. West Pasco had an 88-39 scoring advantage in 15 games, including six shutouts and five one-run wins.

Contributions from everyone.

Land O'Lakes pinch-runner Chad Harris made the most of his limited playing time, scoring five runs, including one on a head-first slide into home, in three Southern Regional games. Light-hitting Shane Stone had an RBI double to clinch Land O'Lakes' final win by the 10-run rule.

Carley Parker was not among West Pasco's hit leaders, but her two-run double highlighted a six-run third inning in the last game. Little-used Samantha Jolly got hit by a pitch to force in the winning run in the state final.

Scores to settle.

Land O'Lakes proved it could come through in the clutch and leave the ghosts of the 1999 Majors All-Star series in the past. That year, most of the players on this team had a chance to win a district title but lost twice to a Belmont Heights team that came out of the losers bracket.

With a half-dozen Dixie players opting for travel ball after the regular season, West Pasco coaches scrambled to put a team together. The Angels surpassed most people's expectations by returning to the World Series.

Even the managers' cliched comments had a familiar ring.

"Like I've been saying, we win as a team, we lose as a team," Land O'Lakes manager Robert Peterson said.

"There's no one all-star standout on this team," West Pasco manager Tony Cherry said.

While some players stood out more than others, the managers had a point.

Without contributions from everyone, some of which were unexpected, neither Land O'Lakes nor West Pasco would have bragging rights as the county's best this summer.

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