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By PETE YOUNG
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 9, 2001
The Palm Harbor seniors advanced Wednesday to the final round at the Southern Regional in Toccoa, Ga., defeating Pearland, Texas 7-2 in the losers' bracket final.
Palm Harbor faces North Carolina in the event's championship round at today 7 p.m., needing to beat the winnners' bracket finalists twice. If Palm Harbor wins tonight, the championship game will be Friday at 10 a.m.
On Wednesday, Palm Harbor used three home runs for most of its offense. Clay Perkett hit a two-run shot and Chris Heil connected for his third homer in two games for a 3-0 lead after one inning. Then Ryan Harvey hit a two-run homer in the third to give Palm Harbor a comfortable advantage.
Left-hander Brian DeGonzague pitched 6 innings, struck out eight and walked two for the victory.
Palm Harbor was 1-1 entering Wednesday's game in the double-elimination tournament. The team lost to North Carolina 3-0 Monday and beat Georgia 10-0 Tuesday in five innings.
RBI LEAGUE: St. Petersburg went 1-4 in the junior division (ages 13-15) at the RBI International World Series from Saturday through Wednesday in Lake Buena Vista.
St. Petersburg, which had advanced by winning the Florida Regional in July, sustained two one-run losses in the World Series, 4-3 to St. Louis and 1-0 to Pawtucket. It also lost 7-0 to Houston and 5-0 to Atlanta, and its win came against Washington, D.C., 9-8.
For the tournament, James Thomas, Philip Weylie and Paul Keller led St. Petersburg with four hits, and Kyle Albright was 3-for-7. On the mound, Ravi Rai allowed two runs in 10 innings across three appearances with eight strikeouts.