Tournament unkind to Pasco

The softball team from Dade City was eliminated, and Land O'Lakes is one loss from being out.

By STEVE LEE

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 24, 2000

SEFFNER -- Coaches, players and parents spoke wistfully of a Land O'Lakes-Dade City Junior Softball final before the start of the Section III All-Stars tournament.

Hopes for an all-Pasco County championship, however, were dashed by Sunday. Dade City was eliminated after two weekend losses at the East Point Little League's Burnett Park and Land O'Lakes is in a precarious position with a 1-1 record in the double-elimination series.

Two baseball teams from Dade City also played in the sectionals on Sunday. The Major Baseball team from Dade City fell into the loser's bracket with a 1-1 record after an 11-2 loss to Bloomingdale.

Dade City's Senior Baseball squad, which lost Saturday 11-1 to the Tampa Bay Yellow Jackets, played Windermere at 5 p.m. but results were unavailable early Sunday evening.

Reaction from the Land O'Lakes and Dade City defeats in softball differed among players, coaches and fans.

"I'm not totally devastated. I'm just a little mad," Dade City pitcher and first baseman Dayna Glover said after her team's 4-0 loss to Union Park. "We could have done better."

"We've come back, but we've never lost," Dade City manager Lisa Herndon said, alluding to two of three games in which her team rallied from deficits and won the District 4 title.

All last week, Paul Babij heard his daughter, Andy, and several of her teammates talk of playing Dade City in the Junior Softball series.

"They wanted to play (Dade City)," Paul Babij said. "They wanted to show everybody they were as good as Dade City was."

As it turns out, Land O'Lakes has a better record than Dade City.

For Land O'Lakes, Saturday's 7-1 win over Winter Springs was a milestone. Not since 1976, when the Senior Softball team won district and sectional championships, had a team from Land O'Lakes won in sectional play. That includes the 1995 Senior Baseball, and 1998 9-10 Softball and Senior Softball teams.

"It's great that they're going for it again," said Shirley Blankenship, mother of Mardee Harvey, who played on the 1976 team. "I hope they win. (Mardee) was pulling for the girls."

So is Land O'Lakes High assistant softball coach Mark Rulison, who has watched most of the players on the Junior Softball team come up through the Land O'Lakes Little League system and who was among the fans attending this weekend's games.

Rulison said there was "a good chance" some of the players from the team could make the Land O'Lakes varsity squad next season. "It all depends on how many we need. I think they all will play varsity eventually."

Gaining valuable playing time in pressure situations such as all-star tournaments can only help those aspiring to play for high school teams, Rulison added.

Glover, for one, can think of a situation with even more on the line than an all-star series. She played for the Zephyrhills Blaze, a 14-and-under traveling team that finished third in the state earlier this summer.

"I use (playing for the Dade City Little League) for practice," she said. "It's still a big deal for tournaments, but travel ball is my main concern."

Glover pitched the final three innings of the season for her Dade City team when she came on in relief of starter Heather Stroud, who lost to Union Park.

Land O'Lakes starting pitcher April Slate, who earned the win on the mound in Saturday's 7-1 win over Winter Springs, was credited with the 5-3 loss to Citrus Park on Sunday.

In a seesaw battle, Citrus Park scored an unearned run in the top of the fourth and Land O'Lakes rallied for a 2-1 lead in the bottom of that inning. Babij singled, stole second base and scored on Colleen Raison's triple. Raison raced home on a wild pitch by Citrus Park's Krystle Crooks.

Citrus Park scored three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh, but a late Land O'Lakes rally came up short. In its final at-bat, Land O'Lakes got one run on Brittany Hipps' RBI single that scored Raison, who led off the seventh with a single.

Dade City's Major Baseball team lived and died by the long ball. Dade City wound up with four home runs in the sectionals and 20 in postseason play, which included 16 in its run to the District 4 title.

Dominique Brown, the losing pitcher against Bloomingdale, led off that game with a home run. That gave Brown five homers in the playoffs and tied him with Kenneth Statham for the team lead.

Tyler Fagan hit his second postseason homer, a solo shot in the third.

Dade City's Major Baseball team plays Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Burnett Park against an undetermined opponent from the loser's bracket.

Land O'Lakes' Junior Softball team plays Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. against the winner of today's Winter Springs-Union Park matchup.

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