Hudson team takes coach to new heights

By JOHN C. COTEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 7, 2000

Ricky Hampshire is in his third season as coach of the Hudson little league 9-10 All-Stars, but this year his team has taken its manager into new territory:

Two wins.

After single wins in the 1998 and '99 All-Star tournaments, the Hudson 9-10 team is now 2-0 after beating Palm Harbor American 3-0 Wednesday night.

With the win and still one game remaining in pool play, Hudson has clinched a spot in next week's single-elimination finals provided it doesn't lose Saturday morning's game by 13 runs or more.

That hardly seems likely considering in two games so far, Hudson has yet to allow a run.

"Throughout the regular season I felt we had a good chance; I thought we'd have a good All-Star team," said Hampshire. "This is a team that is definitely wanting to play ball."

Jimmy Mattos, who won Hudson's first game, pitched a complete game shutout, giving him nine scoreless innings in the tournament so far.

"He's a really good pitcher but the pitcher we faced from Palm Harbor was good too," Hampshire said.

Hence the scoreless game after three innings. But in the fourth, Seth Lyons reached on an error, and after infield singles by Alex Banas and Justin Embry loaded the bases, Sara Hampshire singled to center to score Lyons and make it 1-0.

Palm Harbor got out of the jam, but couldn't avoid further damage in the fifth when Mattos and G. Formica walked, and Lyons' second hit of the game scored Fermica for a 2-0 lead.

Lyons came around and scored on a passed ball later in the inning to cap the scoring.

Hudson finished with seven hits for the game, and Hampshire gave some of the credit to a big crowd that came to Canal Park to cheer on the players.

"That definitely helped," he said.

A PERFECT HOLIDAY: The Holiday majors team is now 2-0 and closer to clinching a single-elimination round game after beating Safety Harbor American 13-3.

Tony Shaffer earned the win on the mound, throwing three innings, and Brandon Decker finished up by pitching the fourth.

Derek Shaw had two hits for Holiday, and Johnny Taylor, Joe Urgo and Joe Dunn each had a hit. Nick Pasvantis drove in the winning run with a base hit up the middle.

ERRORS ARE THEIR WAY: When a coach says that his team played their typical ball, that's usually a good thing. Not in Mike Leduc's case.

The Hudson seniors coach laments the fact that in past All-Star tournaments, errors doomed some fairly good teams to some not-so-good results. And in its tourney opener on Wednesday, it proved to be the case again as Hudson committed nine errors in a 7-6 loss to favored East Lake.

"They won the top team tournament and are just about the favorites to win the district in All-Stars ... it was a big game," Leduc said. "It was same old typical Hudson -- we made our errors. We should have won 6-0."

Leduc said that all seven East Lake runs were unearned. Robert Petrucci pitched the whole game but endured the loss, giving up eight hits. He had his best stuff, but only struck out one batter, showing what a solid hitting team East Lake is.

"Robert strikes out a lot of batters. He's probably averaging 12 or so," Leduc said. "But East Lake is a good hitting team."

Nonetheless, Hudson still had chances to win the game.

Trailing 1-0 in the third, David Leduc singled and stole second before crossing the plate on a single by Petrucci, tying the game. Two errors allowed two more East Lake runs in the fourth, but Kevin Brantley trimmed the lead to one with a solo homer, and in the next inning, Petrucci tripled in Daniel Elswick to tie the score again. However, in the bottom of the sixth, Hudson committed five more errors to let three more East Lake runs score, and again the offense bailed the defense out as Hudson rallied for three in the top of the seventh to tie it a third time.

East Lake made sure there would be no more Hudson rallies, though, winning in the final frame on a suicide squeeze that even Leduc had to term a great call.

Now 0-1, Hudson cannot afford another loss if it is to advance to the single-elimination round. And Leduc doesn't think his team will lose again.

"Can they still win it? Absolutely," Leduc said. "I told them you know we won this game, and we beat ourselves again. We know we should have won. And this group definitely knows how to win."

Brantley finished 3-for-4 for Hudson, and Petrucci was a perfect 3-for-3 with a single, double, triple and four RBI.

To report Hudson, West Pasco and Holiday Little League results, contact John C. Cotey at 727-869-6261, or by e-mail at coteyjohn@aol.com.

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