Palma Ceia's Junior baseball team spends a summer on the road, racking up victories - and coping with loss.
By SCOTT PURKS
Published August 15, 2003
They won a state title at the end of July.
Then, a week later at the regionals in Georgia, they fell one win short of qualifying for the Junior Little League World Championships.
Now, Palma Ceia's Junior baseball team has time to reflect on life on the road - and laundry.
"I guess you needed to be there to understand," said Joe Hafner, the team's manager.
"There" began in Deltona for the state championships July 26-30, a whirlwind five days of living in a hotel, eating wherever and figuring out how to wash clothes in between trips to the ballpark.
After all, they couldn't play in dirty uniforms every day.
"The point is, like the laundry, there's a lot to think about," Hafner said. "I mean we didn't know from one day to the next if we needed to buy another night for a hotel. If we lost we would have gone home."
But they kept winning - and traveling.
Less than two days after nabbing the championship, Palma Ceia's contingent - more than 50 when you count 12 players, their parents, siblings and dogs, including Rico the Cockapoo and Jenny the black Lab - was on its way to Cartersville, Ga., for the regionals.
Most piled into a chartered bus, while others, such as Robin Lashbrook (mother of pitcher/infielder Michael Lashbrook), drove herself. On the way, Robin took a side trip to Florida State University to pick up her daughter, Erin.
"This was a family thing, a big deal, a once in a lifetime chance," Robin Lashbrook said. "We all had to be there."
For the next six days they watched their 13- and 14-year-old boys slug it out with the southeast's best. In between, they tried to eat, sleep, find entertainment (particularly during rain-outs) and do the laundry.
On Aug. 6, Palma Ceia found itself in the fifth inning of the regional final - one game from going to the Junior World Series in Michigan. They were tied at 3 with a team from Virginia when . . .
The rain came.
"It rained so hard we had to come back the next day (at 10 a.m.) to finish," Hafner said. "So it was back to the hotel for one more night. One more night of getting everything organized."
Just before noon Aug. 7, Palma Ceia lost 6-5. It "hurt pretty bad," said pitcher Patrick Hafner. "The bus ride back sure wasn't like the bus ride up. It was pretty quiet."
It was a similar ending for other Palma Ceia Little League teams. In the past five years, Palma Ceia has won three state titles. Each time, the seasons ended at regionals.
Hafner said the whole team wanted "more than anything," to make the trip to Michigan, which would have meant leaving Cartersville two days later.
"But it was a great, great experience," he said. "We all became closer after this. This is something we can look back 20 years from now and share."
Next season, most of the team, which has played together since age 6 at Bayshore and Palma Ceia little leagues, will attend high school at Plant, Jefferson, Robinson or Blake.
Most likely they will never play together again.
"We'll miss it," Robin Lashbrook said. "Everyone got along so well, from the players to the parents.
"I don't think it's the way you plan your summer vacation, but I know none of us would trade it for anything."
