The Junior squad caps a unbeaten run through the tournament with a 5-2 win over Venezuela.
By ANTHONY GAGLIANO
Published August 22, 2004
Even if none of the players on the 2004 Palma Ceia/Bayshore Junior Baseball team go on to major-league careers like Gary Sheffield and Derek Bell, they'll share one thing with the two members of the 1982 Belmont Heights team - a World Series championship.
PC/Bayshore completed a perfect run through the World Series in Taylor, Mich., by defeating Paraguana Little League from Punto Fijo, Venezuela 5-2 on Saturday.
In six games, PC/Bayshore scored 56 runs to join Belmont Heights and Tampa Bay in 1985 as teams from Tampa to win the junior (13 and 14 year olds) division.
Chandler Flom, used mostly in relief throughout All-Stars, came through in the biggest pressure situation.
The big left-hander fired 61/3 innings and limited Paraguana to six hits and two walks. Cornelius Gallon came on and struck out the last batter for the save.
"It wasn't a big deal," assistant Wil Ramos said of starting Flom. "We decided one and a half hours before that Flom was pitching and we gave him the ball."
Venezuela scored with three straight hits in the first, and added two in the fifth. But like the rest of the field, the team couldn't match the power of PC/Bayshore.
The team set a World Series record with 14 home runs, including two leadoff shots from Peto Kirkwood. Kirkwood had five total, and teammate Michael Lashbrook had four.
Kirkwood started his 4-for-4 game by leading off with a home run in the first. Lashbrook followed with a single and scored the second run on a Carlos Laluz single two batters later.
Kirkwood began the third with another home run and added his third RBI in the fourth with a single, scoring Graham Ramos. Lashbrook knocked in a run with a single to score Gallon.
PC/Bayshore complemented its surging offense by playing error-free ball in the U.S. final and the championship game.
"We never played for tomorrow," Ramos said. "We always played to win that day. By the time we got to the championship, we were used to stepping up and getting the win, and that's what we did."
