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Highlands Today

Liberty Co. Eliminates AP

Contributed photo/JOE DiCRISTOFALO

Liberty County's Roe Hinson scores ahead of the tag by Avon Park's Cody Pearlman in Tuesday evening's action in the Dixie Youth Majors state tournament in Brooksville. Avon Park lost 7-1. The loss eliminated them from the tournament.

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By CHRIS HOFFMAN

Highlands Today

Published: July 17, 2008

RIDGE MANOR - Tyrone Perry's sweet swing connected on Liberty County's ace Hunter Jacobs' curveball for a beautiful solo home run in the first inning on Tuesday, but that's where the cheers ended for Avon Park.

Liberty County capitalized on countless AP fielding errors and Jacobs was nearly flawless on the mound in a 7-1 win that eliminated Avon Park from the Dixie Youth Majors (11-12) state tournament.

Avon Park coach Pete Zeegers was nearly speechless when talking about his team's performance.

"We made just one error in the tournament until Tuesday," Zeegers said. "The defense just broke down all of a sudden and we started making errors on routine plays at crucial times. I don't know how to explain it."

Down 2-1 after the first inning, Avon Park and Liberty County played to an even draw, with Kyle Kelly and Jacobs trading pitches and doing a good job of keeping hitter's off balance.

Kelly was solid on the mound, as was reliever Trey Perry, who held Liberty County to just four hits in the game, but scoring wasn't a problem with the errors piling up after the fourth inning.

Five runs were unearned due to the miscues by Avon Park's defense, as Liberty County took a 4-1 lead after four innings and added two runs in the fifth, as AP's offense stalled.

"We hit the ball well today," Zeegers said. "We just couldn't put enough hits together and their defense didn't make any errors. You can't give a good team like that extra chances to score."

Avon Park's Jose Torres and Tyrone Perry each had two hits, as the team managed just six hits for the game against Jacobs' performance.

Zeegers was enamored by the Liberty County ace and his maturity on the mound.

"He's the best pitcher we've ever faced," Zeegers said. "He had the best curveball for a kid his age. It had great movement and he could throw it for strikes which really hurt us.

"He forced a lot of ground outs."

Jacobs finished with eight strikeouts against Avon Park on Tuesday, which was a small victory for AP, who struck out 12 times in their meeting in the opening round.

Avon Park exits the tournament with a fifth-place finish, but more than that is the thrilling memories from the come-from-behind wins.

Not many will forget Garrett Zeegers walk-off, two-run double against Waheneta on Monday, or AP scoring four runs in the top of the sixth to rally from a two-run deficit against Hiland Park of Panama City on Sunday.

"Not many people thought we would finish this high," Zeegers said. "We surprised a lot of people after losing the first game."

Zeegers believes that this tournament will go along way for the future of Avon Park baseball.

"This was a building block," Zeegers said. "These kids played hard against some top competition and that's the kinds of experiences that you build on for the future."

Chris Hoffman can be reached at 863-386-5827 or at choffman@highlandstoday.com.

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