Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
TERRY JONESBloomingdale's star strikes out 14 to extend her record to 21-0. She now has 268 on the season.
VALRICO - Behind the strong pitching of Allison Kime and the power hitting of Tiffany Anderson, Bloomingdale beat Stuart Martin County 3-1 to capture the region semifinal and set up a date in the finals Friday for a chance to make it to the state tournament.
Kime extended her pitching record to 21-0 and Bloomingdale improved to 27-2. Martin County ended its season 21-8.
"Allison just seems to knuckle down when runners get on base," Bloomingdale coach Mike Clamon said.
"Tonight's game was almost a carbon copy of the quarterfinal game last week. We knew coming in they (Martin County) bunted a lot so we were ready for that."
Martin County scored first, taking advantage of a rare base on balls and double given up by Kime.
Megan Voeller started the fourth inning with a walk and covered the balance of the bases on the second of two doubles hit by Tigers catcher Tara Esposito.
Bloomingdale came right back in the same inning, when Jasmine Rivera reached first on a base on balls after one out. Kime singled, to put runners on first and second.
Tiffany Anderson drove both runners home with a double to the centerfield fence.
Bloomingdale took advantage of a pair of hits and a Tigers error to add another run in the bottom of the fifth.
Jeanna Gerun started the inning with a single and took second on a grounder by Ashley Hicks.
Gerun scored on an RBI grounder to second by Kristin Maas that was thrown to first for out number two, while Gerun crossed the plate.
Kime struck out five of the final six batters to put the win in the record book.
She struck out 14 for the game and extended her strikeouts to 268 for the year.
"Tiffany got the big hit for us tonight," Kime said. "She got me back into the game and pumped me up to finish.
"I always play better, when we get a couple of runs on the board."