Bloomingdale will take on Countryside while Alonso will meet River Ridge today.
By TERRY JONES
Published March 27, 2004
BRANDON - After the first day of the Jon Sinclair Memorial Spring Fling, the semifinal brackets set Alonso against River Ridge and Bloomingdale against Countryside.
The winners meet at 6 tonight.
Countryside trailed East Bay 1-0 until tying it in the fifth. The Cougars scored again in the bottom of the seventh for a 2-1 win.
In the toughest part of the bottom bracket, Bloomingdale edged Academy of the Holy Names 2-1 in its initial game. The Bulls had another battle at the 8 p.m. game with Chamberlain, scoring a 3-1 victory to earn a game with the undefeated Cougars.
Alonso continued its strong season, beating King 8-4 in Game 1 and knocking off Riverview 5-3 in Game 1.
Against Riverview, the Ravens led 5-1 entering the sixth when the Sharks rallied for two runs and left two runners on.
The semifinals are scheduled to start at noon today at J.C. Handley Field in Brandon.
Class 6A Bloomingdale and Class 5A Chamberlain will not meet again this season, but both are state title contenders.
The Chiefs entered the game with the Bulls after beating Armwood 15-0.
Allison Kime improved to 11-0, scattering five hits and striking out 16 Chiefs.
"It is easy to see Allison made the difference for us against Chamberlain," Bloomingdale coach Mike Clamon said. We have a good team this year and so does Chamberlain. They never quit. They loaded the bases on us in the seventh inning and pushed us to the limit."
Chamberlain stranded 11 runners and loaded the bases twice but managed to score only in the first inning to take lead for the first 21/2 innings.
"On five occasions, we left runners on third base," Chamberlain coach Bob Diez said. "That is what you work for, to get runners in scoring position and have the next batter bring them home.
"We will have to work on that. But you have to give Kime credit. She is a great pitcher. Now we will just try to go 3-1 in the balance of the tournament."
