Errors costly at World Series

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 18, 2000

Playing five softball games and not allowing an earned run, you'd think, would make for five victories. Not so for the Hernando Regulators under-18 girls team this weekend.

The Regulators, foiled by errors, won three of five games at the ISA World Series in Fort Myers this weekend.

"We gave up 14 runs, and all 14 were unearned runs," said coach Ernie Chatman, whose team included nine players from Hernando and three from Central. "We could have done better, but there were 20 teams there, all like All-Star teams, and we got to see a lot of good softball."

The Regulators opened with a 3-1 tiebreaker win against the Collier Cubs and a 5-4 victory against the Miami Mini-Canes. The tiebreaker format, used when a time limit has ended and the game remains tied, calls for a runner to be placed on second base, and Chrissy Hartley brought home the winning runs with a two-run double. Hernando lost its next game 4-0 to the Lake Worth Sun Devils, but rebounded in the losers' bracket with a 3-2 against the Palm Beach Pizzazz, with pitcher Beth Chatman throwing a seven-inning no-hitter with 10 strikeouts.

The Regulators' run ended with a 3-0 loss to the Fort Myers Lightning, with errors the chief culprit in the defeat. Hartley gave up one hit, but the walk and error that followed were enough to propel the Lightning to victory.

Hernando played most of the tournament without pitcher/outfielder Kimi Olmstead, who played in one game before returning to Brooksville because of illness.

"We missed her bat," coach Chatman said. "But we played some good competition and ran into good pitching. In tournaments like this, they're going to be able to put the ball in play, and we just made too many mistakes."

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