West Pasco finds sweet relief in final

By BRANDON WRIGHT and JOHN C. COTEY
Published July 3, 2007

SAFETY HARBOR - Things didn't look good for West Pasco in the final inning.

Starter Blaize Grabowski was forced to leave after reaching his pitch limit, catcher Harrison Keslar had to remove his gear due to the heat and move to leftfield, and West Pasco's comfy five-run lead had shrunk to two.

Enter reliever RJ Johnston.

Johnston retired the final two batters as West Pasco held on to defeat Palm Harbor 7-5 in the Little League District 12 Tournament final at Safety Harbor on Sunday.

"I didn't want anything to be my fault, " Johnston said. "After I got the last out, I was in shock. I had no feeling."

Johnston, West Pasco's fourth pitcher of the inning, had not thrown a pitch in the tournament to that point.

"We needed something, " West Pasco coach Dave Grabowski said. "I turned to RJ in the dugout and asked if he could close it out and he said yes."

The West Pasco team advances to the sectional tournament, beginning July 13 in Dunedin.

With the bases loaded in Sunday's finale, Johnston entered and got some help from his defense. Third baseman Max Martin snared a shot down the line and touched third for the second out, leaving runners on first and second with two down. Johnston then struck out Palm Harbor's third hitter, looking to end the game.

Tyler Hawks' fourth-inning RBI single gave West Pasco the lead for good and teammates Grabowski and Keslar each went 3-for-3. Brian Auerbach finished 3-for-4 for Palm Harbor.

REPEAT?: Joey Tedder coached last year's 9-10 group from the Dade City Little League to the state tournament, a first for Dade City.

This year, he is coaching many of those same players on the 10-11 all-star team and experiencing similar results so far.

At Burks Park Saturday, the 10-11s opened tourney play with an 11-0 win over Land O'Lakes Gold as starting pitcher John Flattley struck out 13 of the 15 batters he retired.

Tedder said he has about five to six players left over from last year's team - Flattley is one of them - and this year's team is similar in that it hits at every spot in the lineup.

And the bench, for that matter. Cameron Holloway 2-for-2, Austin Dixon (a double) and Blake Roberts (single in his first at-bat) all came in as subs and contributed.

Tonight at 7 p.m., they will take on New Tampa. It will be a rematch of last year's 9-10 district championship game.

SENIORS HOT: West Pasco's senior all-star team wrapped up pool play with a 2-0 record after beating Tarpon Springs and Largo by a combined score of 18-3. It plays Thursday in the semifinals.

SO FAR, SO GOOD: West Pasco's 11-12 team is 1-0 heading into tonight's game against Holiday.

In the opener this weekend, Bob Peck and Nick Feeney hit home runs in a 7-5 win.

Little League results can be e-mailed to johncotey@gmail.com

[Last modified July 2, 2007, 21:18:42]