GULFPORT - Boca Ciega survived a Northeast seventh inning rally to win 5-3 and Seminole made quick work of Dixie Hollins, 18-0 Wednesday at Boca Ciega in the Class 5A District 10 semifinals.
Morgan Hughart started the game for Boca Ciega with a leadoff single and later scored on a wild pitch. Amber Plomatos singled in Allie Cooper in the third. Boca Ciega again benefited from a Northeast error when Jamie Spohn and Plomatos later in the inning.
While the Vikings allowed three unearned runs, the Pirates managed to defend without committing an error.
"All year long we have been playing good defense," Boca Ciega coach Mary Drayton said. "We really haven't had a lot of errors like we have had in the past years."
Going into the final inning, Northeast looked liked it was going to be a shutout victim before coach Holli Yates admonished them.
"It is so hard to bring girls back up once they are down," Yates said. "I just warned them that this is it. Either you score or your season is over with."
Both Lindsay McGory and April Varner scored on a Lauren Flanagan triple off Hughart who had allowed just three hits up to that point. Brittany Dubois had an RBI single to bring the Vikings within two runs before the Pirates thwarted their comeback attempt.
"If you want it, you got to dig deep and find a way to win it," Drayton said. "Bogie blood runs in veins."
In the second game, the Rebels were simply overmatched. The Warhawks batted around in two different innings and all nine starters got hits. They scored 18 runs on 19 hits.
"The scoreboard pretty much spoke for itself," Seminole coach Mark Deruzzo said. "We ten-run ruled them the last time so we expected to do well."
Seminole scored runs in bunches. After the Rebels held them scoreless in the first, the Warhawks exploded for seven runs in the second, five in the third, and six in the fourth. Taking advantage of a deep Dixie Hollins outfield, Seminole got six hits, mostly singles, in each of its final three innings at the plate.
"They were playing back to the fences so there was no sense in trying to hit them out," Deruzzo said. "We worked on base hits because when you play better teams that is what you need to hit. No one has hit the ball that far this year anyway."
