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Highlands Today

Lake Placid Mauls Malone

Chris Hoffman/Highlands Today

Lake Placid's Justin LaRosa congratulates Tyler Carr after scoring in the first inning of Sunday's Dixie Youth Majors "O" Zone state tournament in Lakeland.

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By Christopher  Hoffman | Highlands Today

Published: July 7, 2008

EAST LAKELAND — "The game was like it was in slow motion," said Lake Placid's Tyler Carr after his team's offense awoke from it's summer slumber on Sunday.

Lake Placid deposited eight runs on the board in the first inning and cruised to a 10-0 four-inning, mercy-rule victory over Malone during the second round of the Dixie Youth Majors "O" Zone (ages 11-12) state tournament in East Lakeland.

"It was so good to see the boys hit the ball better than they did yesterday," LP coach Ed Stanley said. "We finally had a breakout game that gave us some much-needed confidence."

With the win, Lake Placid advanced to play the West Volusia National team on Monday night in an elimination game.

Results were not available at press time.

Check out Wednesday's Highlands Today for complete tournament coverage.

Lake Placid scored eight runs on five hits and two walks in the first inning where they batted around the order to set the offensive pace that was limited to just three hits against West Volusia America on Saturday.

Nathan Stanley's walk in the first inning loaded the bases and another walk to Josh Montero brought home Alex Miller for the first run of the game.

A hard-hit grounder by Heath Harris plated two runs, Montero scored on a wild pitch and Laine Daum cracked an RBI double into left-center field as the inning seemingly wouldn't end.

After a strike out, Scott Colley's single brought home Daum and Cody Ming drove in a run on a single into center, stole second and moved to third on a balk.

A second balk allowed Ming to trot home for a commanding 8-0 lead.

Carr and Harris combined for a no-hitter, as the LP pitching staff allowed just three walks and five baserunners for the game.

"Tyler got us off to a good start on the mound," Stanley said. "He threw for strikes, kept Malone hitters off base and limited their scoring chances."

Defensively, Lake Placid was more focused than on Saturday, as Malone hit into four ground outs and the boys in green made just two errors for the game.

In the fourth, Malone threatened to score and extend the game.

With runners on first and second and one out, Harris alertly picked off the runner at second and struck out the final batter to end the game.

But for Stanley, it was getting the bats going that was the key to this win.

"We've out-hit every team we've faced this year except [West Volusia American]," Stanley said. "Today, we got back to basics and just put the ball in play.

"These kids have worked too hard to have their season end like this."

Stanley's sacrifice fly to deep center scored Carr from third in the second and Justin LaRosa stole consecutive bases after being walked, and scored on a fielding error by Malone on a routine grounder by Cole Russell in the third for the margin of victory.

"It was nice to finally hit the ball," Carr said. "We needed this game to extend our season but also to show that we deserve to be here."

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