The Fourth of July weekend provided little in the way of celebration for area American Legion teams at the Veterans Memorial Tournament in Bradenton.
None of the five advanced out of pool play.
The Ravens Baseball Club finished 2-2 with wins coming against the Boys and Girls Club and Port Charlotte. Matt Stephenson went the distance against the Boys and Girls Club, striking out five in a 5-3 win. David DelGuercio went 2-for-3 with a homer, and Luis Rodriguez finished 2-for-4.
Alex Panteliodis struck out five in a complete game to beat Port Charlotte 12-2. D.J. Fuentes (2-for-4) homered, and DelGuercio (2-for-3) hit two.
West Tampa Post 248 also finished 2-2, defeating Newsome 3-1 and West Milford, N.J., 17-0. West Tampa led Sarasota Baseball Club 2-0 in the seventh before Ken Wadsworth gave up consecutive homers in a 3-2 loss.
Josh Collazo hit three homers during the tournament for West Tampa.
The Terriers Baseball Club went 2-2 as well. The Terriers overcame an 8-0 deficit to beat Venice 11-10, and Matt Schurig picked up the win against Northport 12-3.
Newsome went 1-3, defeating West Milford 10-0. Newsome's David Jackson finished 3-for-3 with two runs scored.
Newsome's three losses came by a combined five runs. Sarasota Baseball Club defeated the Wolves 1-0 behind a three-hit, 15-strikeout performance by Eric Erickson. Newsome's Ryan Swindell finished 2-for-2 with a double.
The Boys and Girls Club went 1-3, beating Port Charlotte 13-12. Brock Wooten and Chris Thompson homered in the win. Wooten and Gus Fernandez hit two homers for the tournament.
AREA TOURNAMENT: The district tournament begins July20 at a site to be determined, Central Area Chairman Steve Morgan said Wednesday.
Eight teams will be split into two divisions, with the winners advancing to the state tournament in Clearwater.
Because the area is hosting the tournament (at a site to be determined next week), the team with the top regular-season record automatically advances to state and will bypass the district tournament.
