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Storms Postpone

Sebring Rally Comes Up Short, Loses To Okeechobee In Final Game

CHRIS HOFFMAN/Highlands Today

Storm clouds hover over the Avon Park and Okeechobee players during the Dixie Boys (age 14) District 8 tournament on Sunday. All games were postponed until Monday.

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By Christopher  Hoffman | Highlands Today

Published: July 3, 2007

OKEECHOBEE - OKEECHOBEE - Mother Nature showed us just how small we really are and that even baseball has to take a back seat.

Storm clouds hovered and the inevitable occurred –– the thunder roared, the rains fell and the games were canceled.

The Avon Park All-Stars were at the plate in the home half of the first in the Dixie Boys (age 14) District 8 tournament against Okeechobee, but they never got to swing the bat, as the games were postponed.

The Okeechobee/Avon Park game was scheduled to resume on Monday. Results were not available at press time.

The Sebring All-Stars were fortunate enough to finish its game against Okeechobee in the final of the Dixie Junior Boys (age 13) District 8 tournament, although I bet they wished the rain would have doused them as well.

Sebring, which pummeled Okeechobee 13-1 on Friday, battled hard until the final batter, but in the end they came up a run short, losing 4-3 and with it a state tournament bid.

"We were just one hit short today," Sebring coach Shon Abeln said. "We couldn't' get a timely hit the past two days. I'm proud of these kids. They battled back right until the end."

The most telling stat of the tournament was that Sebring came into Sunday's game having stranded 21 runners on base and another eight in the final game, which tells that the boys in blue had chances to win.

Sebring had plenty of chances to raise the trophy on Sunday, taking a 2-0 lead in the third on a two-run single into center by Corbin Hoffner that scored Alex Griffin and Seth Abeln, but the momentum shifts in this game were swift and extreme.

Okeechobee didn't give Sebring time to breath, scoring four runs in the home half of the third.

Thor Harden, who crushed a grand slam off Seth Abeln on Saturday, started things off with a single into center. After a walk by Brad Coleman, Harden tagged at third on a fielder's choice, but Tyler Finney cracked a two-run double that tied the game. Sebring got Justin Morgan to ground out and it looked like they would get out of the inning. Mark Weir's double off the left-field fence changed all that, plating a run and center fielder Noah Wilcox single into the gap in right to score Weir for a 4-2 lead.

Okeechobee's defense and pitching clamped down on Sebring, striking out four and forcing numerous pop-ups and groundouts to keep scoring opportunities to a premium.

With three outs left, Sebring dug deep and refused to go quietly. Buddy Mays and Griffin remained patient at the plate to draw a pair of walks. Seth Abeln's sacrifice fly brought home Mays to cut the lead to one.

Hoffner made things interesting by beating out a throw to first for an infield single to put runners on first and third. That is as close Sebring would get to home plate, as a pop-up to the infield ended their title chances.

Although losing to Okeechobee was obviously painful, the boys from Sebring took it in stride and showed tremendous sportsmanship, congratulating the winning team with hugs and high fives.

"I tip my hat to that team," Coach Abeln said. "We knew that they were not the team that we beat on Friday. They came together as a team and did what they had to do."

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