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Poinciana MVP Eliminates Sebring

Chris Hoffman/Highlands Today

Sebring's Santos Bencomo covers second base as Poinciana's Edwin Marcial attempts a steal during Sunday's game in Lakeland.

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By Christopher  Hoffman | Highlands Today

Published: July 7, 2008

EAST LAKELAND — Garrett Deross motioned to his coaches that the ball was at eye-level after taking a called third strike to end the game, but his disgusted expression told the story of the game and Sebring's tournament.

Poinciana's Tony Lima hit a two-run homer to cap off a three-run third inning, as the top-seeded team eliminated Sebring with a 7-2 win in the Dixie Youth Majors "O" Zone (ages 11-12) state tournament in East Lakeland on Sunday.

"That last call left a bitter taste in my mouth," said Deross of the called third strike. "We had the talent to go far in this tournament, but we just didn't get it done."

Poinciana purposely pitched out of the strike zone to Deross after his solo home run tied the game at one in the first inning. But the strike zone seemed to get wider during the at-bat and Deross was caught looking at a high fast ball.

But Sebring head coach Charlie White had little answers as to why his team's offense didn't show up this weekend.

"Our bats just weren't working," White said. "It's hard to score when you're not hitting the ball.

"We made our fair share of errors today, but we could've overcome them with some timely hitting."

Lima was on the mound for Poinciana and kept Sebring off-balance and swinging at pitches out of the strike zone.

He surrendered just two hits and racked up five strikeouts for the game.

"[Lima] faked us out today," White said. "Our batters were way out in front of his off-speed pitches and we couldn't catch up to him."

Sebring's ineffectiveness against Lima was the story of the game, as it took the boys in blue three innings to bat around the order and get back to their big hitters, but by that time they were in a three-run hole.

Down 4-1, Sebring was given the perfect recipe for a comeback.

Ty Little and Garrett Deross drew walks and advanced a base on a balk by Lima.

Chris Hensley then ripped a single into center to score Little, but great defense by Poinciana held Deross at third.

Lima proceeded to tally another strike out to get out of the jam.

Hensley did a great job on the mound for Sebring, pitching 5 1/3 innings and kept his team within striking distance with his deceptive knuckleball.

"Chris was solid for us today," White said. "We just had nobody behind him that would make a play."

In the fifth and down two runs, Hensley struck out Poinciana's Kevin Cotto to start the inning.

But Edwin Marcial's double into center and Lima's RBI single tacked on another run.

A Sebring fielding miscue on a routine grounder left Hensley hanging, which set up an RBI single by Marvin Rodriguez to extend Poinciana's lead to four.

Sebring's Ryan Davidson single into right field to open the sixth against Cotto, who relieved Lima in the final inning.

Teammates cheered from the dugout for a rally, but Cotto sent the next three Sebring batter's back to the dugout with three straight strikeouts to end the game.

When asked about Sebring's offensive woes during the tournament, Deross couldn't come up with a definitive answer.

"I wish I could put my finger on why we didn't hit the ball well," Deross said. "We've seen pitching a lot harder than [Lima's] but we were just too impatient I guess.

"It's real disappointing to end your season knowing you didn't play at your best."

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