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West Volusia Dominates LP

CHRIS HOFFMAN/Highlands Today

Lake Placid's Tyler Carr throws a pitch during Saturday's Dixie "O" Zone state tournament game against West Volusia in Lakeland.

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By Christopher  Hoffman | Highlands Today

Published: July 6, 2008

EAST LAKELAND — Some Lake Placid players stood silent as they watched West Volusia's Trey Turner warm up before they were about to take their first at-bats.

Turner's fastball, which has been clocked at 60-65 mph, forced numerous pop-ups and kept Lake
Placid in check, as West Volusia defeated LP 12-1 in a four-inning, mercy-rule game in the opening round of the Dixie Youth Majors (ages 11-12) "O" Zone state tournament in East Lakeland on Saturday.

"That's the best pitcher and best team we've faced all year bar none," Lake Placid coach Ed Stanley said. "We couldn't catch up to [Turner's] fast ball and had very few chances to get anything going offensively."

The loss dropped Lake Placid into the loser's bracket where they were scheduled to face Malone at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Results were not available at press time. Check out Tuesday's Highlands Today for complete game coverage.

The game was delayed for almost two hours before the fourth inning due to severe lightning.

West Volusia's offense was just efficient as their defense, as they scored four runs in the first, third and fourth innings, while they allowed just six Lake Placid baserunners for the game.

Tucker Turner hit the first pitch into right field and stole consecutive bases to reach third when Frank Martello punched him home with a single into right that sparked West Volusia's offense that took an early 4-0 lead after the first inning.

After going down in order, Lake Placid's Heath Harris found his rhythm and looked solid on the mound, as he struck out the first two West Volusia batters and forced a ground-out for a 1-2-3 inning.

But the decision was made to pull Harris and save his innings for later in the tournament and West Volusia doubled its lead by scoring four runs on just two hits, as Lake Placid walked two batters and made a pair of errors on routine fielding plays that put the game nearly out of reach.

Lake Placid had its best chance to cut into West Volusia's lead in the third, when they had runners at second and third with two outs, but LP was called out at the plate to keep them scoreless.

Tyler Carr made sure Lake Placid wasn't shut out in their opening round game, as he drew a walk, stole second and then scored on a single by Alex Miller, but a great defensive throw by Tommy Heller from right field picked off Miller at third.

"We're just going to regroup and go out and try to win one tomorrow," Stanley said.

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