Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
However, unlike last season, Dade City has two chances to defeat Plant City American.
By JAMAL THALJI
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 10, 2001
DADE CITY -- Dale Maggard remembers when the cleat was on the other foot.
It was during last year's District 4 All-Star Tournament when Dade City had to come through the losers' bracket to claim the major baseball championship by defeating Plant City American in two consecutive games.
This year, Plant City American is the team atop the losers' bracket and has to beat undefeated Dade City twice to win the District 4 title. The first game was Monday at Lakeland City.
Still, Maggard would rather have his Dade City team sitting in the catbird seat than playing catch-up like last season -- just so long as the ending is the same, with Dade City bringing home an All-Star trophy.
"It's the exact opposite of what we did last year," he said. "They put us in the losers' bracket, and we came up and needed to beat them twice, and now they have to beat us twice. It's kind of weird."
Thursday proved to be the roughest part of Dade City's ride to the District 4 final. Dade City barely edged Plant City American 4-3, sending its rival into the losers' bracket and setting up this week's showdown for the title.
Trailing 3-1 with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, Dade City managed to score three runs to take the lead and the game from Plant City American. After the inning started with a groundout, Gerald Mathis walked to get on base. Jamie Cruz belted what the coaches thought was a two-run homer, but it was snagged at the fence for the second out. Mathis took second on the play.
Zach Maggard followed with a line drive between third base and shortstop, advancing Mathis to third. So with runners on the corners and two outs, Jeff Parker hit an almost identical grounder to score Mathis to make it 3-2 and advance Maggard to second.
Pinch-hitter Julian Juarez hit another identical shot to the same hole, only this time the Plant City American shortstop snagged the grounder. With two outs on the board, Maggard was already on his way home and tied it at 3-3, and the coaches waved Parker home as well. The shortstop threw the ball to first, but Juarez beat out the throw. The first baseman looked at the umpire in amazement, losing a few crucial seconds that Parker used to slide safely in at home to score the go-ahead run and make it 4-3. Cruz was the winning pitcher.
"It was a pretty dramatic inning," Maggard said. "It was two outs and everybody was running."
The victory gave the Dade City majors the west division championship, and they beat east division champion Haines City 6-0 on Saturday to advance to Monday night's final.
Parker struck out 12 and threw a one-hitter that could have been a no-hitter had an umpire's call on a single been more favorable. Parker and Zach Maggard had four of the team's six RBI.
RUNNER-UP AGAIN: Randy Maggard's Dade City senior all-star team finished second in its division, losing 7-2 on Friday to Lake Wales.
Thursday, Dade City beat up on Lakeland Tangerine 10-0. Matt Smith was the winning pitcher and hit a home run.
But against Lake Wales, a lack of hitting and one bad inning came back to haunt Dade City. In the second inning, Dade City's defensive and pitching lapses allowed Lake Wales to score five runs. Obrien Lopez's two-run homer in the fourth was the only spark Dade City could manage as the team finished with a 5-2 tournament record.
"We gave it a run," Maggard said. "We enjoyed it, and the boys played well. The team I coached won the season, won the league and finished as runner-up in the Tournament of Champions and all-stars. I'm pretty happy with that. I wish we'd have won it, but we didn't do to bad."
MAJOR FINISH: The Zephyrhills major baseball all-stars saw their season end in a 4-0 loss to Plant City National on July 3, ending all-star play with a 2-2 tournament record in the east division at Plant City.
Once again, Justin Johnson pitched a good game for Zephyrhills, but Plant City National's hurler was just too tough. "Their pitcher pretty much shut us down," Zephyrhills manager Geoffrey Wells said. "Our pitcher, Justin Johnson pitched really good, but their pitcher had a mean curveball. We just didn't hit the ball.
"The team played good (this season), we just ran into some tough pitching. We played really good defensively, and we played well as a team together. We just ran into the two toughest pitchers in the tournament."
COMING UP SHORT: Land O'Lakes' junior softball team didn't get an opportunity to return to sectionals. The players didn't even get a chance to defend their District 13 title.
An 11-0 loss to host Pinecrest on Friday left Land O'Lakes (3-2) as a district runner-up.
"We didn't have all our girls back, but they did remarkably well," Land O'Lakes coach Suzanne Douglas said.
Pitcher Alicia Dion took the loss Friday for Land O'Lakes, which mustered just two hits against Pinecrest on an Andy Babij double and a single by Samantha Collins, who was thrown out trying to leg out a double.
"It wasn't pretty," Douglas said of her team being shut out.
Land O'Lakes won its second game of the series Thursday, 13-3 over East Point, on the strength of a seven-run second inning.
Dion was the winning pitcher in that game and was helped out defensively by the stellar play of shortstop Jenifer Young.
Leadoff hitter Gina Schiffer sparked the Land O'Lakes offense in that contest with two hits, three runs and three stolen bases.
Collins chipped in with two doubles, a single and two runs scored and Shanne Fowler, who reached base on a hit and a walk, scored twice.
- To report Little League scores, highlights and interesting tidbits, call Jamal Thalji at (352) 521-5757, ext. 25, or e-mail him at thalji@sptimes.com; or call Steve Lee at (813) 226-3457 or send e-mail to lee@sptimes.com.