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Okeechobee Outslugs Avon Park

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By Christopher  Hoffman | Highlands Today

Published: June 22, 2008

AVON PARK — Christian Crews may have been fatigued from a two-day rest, but he still hurled five solid innings and smacked a game-changing three-run home run in the third to lift the Okeechobee All-Stars to an 11-4 victory over the Avon Park All-Stars during the Dixie Youth Majors District 8 tournament at Durrah Martin Recreational Complex on Sunday morning.

"I was a little tired but I just came out and tried to throw strikes," Crews said. "My fastball was working, and on the home run, I was just able to take advantage of a pitch up in the strike zone."

Okeechobee assistant coach Neal Crawford has seen Crews put up performances such as this all season long and had all the trust in the world for his hurler.

"Christian is deadly with his fastball," Crawford said. "He had one bad pitch when he hung one up there and [Fauthree] made him pay with the homer. I'm just really proud of these kids. I wouldn't have cared if we had won by one run. We're just happy with a win."

Both teams advance to the Dixie Majors state tournament, which begins on July 12 in Ridge Manor near Brooksville.

Okeechobee advanced to the championship final after defeating Clewiston 3-2 in the late game on Saturday.

Avon Park had trouble putting hits together during their two games against Crews, and AP head coach Willie Perry gave praise to the opposing pitcher.

"[Crews] has such a good arm and great poise on the mound," Perry said. "I think even if we played our best game, it would've been a really close game."

Avon Park played the entire tournament without one of their top players in Tyrone Perry, who would've given the host team a bona fide ace, and his bat would've given AP another threat for Okeechobee to worry about.

"It would've been a different tournament if Tyrone would've been here, that's for sure," Perry said. "His absence changed the dynamic of this team, but I'm taking nothing away from Okeechobee. They came and played hard and played to win."

AP's defense failed them yet again, as they committed six errors in the field and Okeechobee took advantage of the miscues.

Holding a slim 3-2 lead heading into the home half of the third, Okeechobee scored six runs on four hits to wrestle the momentum away from Avon Park.

With two runners on base, Kutler Crawford hit a shot down the left field line to score a run and Crews sent a 2-2 pitch over the batting cages in deep left field that emptied the Okeechobee dugout for a celebration of his three-run homer.

Adam Davis walked, stole second and scored moments later on a bad throw by Avon Park to third on a steal attempt. Otto Ramierez singled up the middle to score Ethan Revels to give Okeechobee a commanding 9-2 lead.

"That one inning was the turning point in the whole game," Perry said. "We gave up one big inning and we couldn't regain any momentum from that point on. They were the better team today."

Avon Park was able to get to Crews early and took the lead on Bree Fauthree's two-run bomb into deep center field for a 2-0 lead.

That was Fauthree's fourth home run of the season and he was proud to come through when his team needed a jolt of confidence.

"[Crews] threw me an inside fastball and I put my head down and sent it into center field," Fauthree said. "We really needed to score first to give us a chance against him. He's been keeping us off balance this tournament."

But Okeechobee scored on an error in the bottom of the first and took it's first lead in the second when Garrett Thomas tied the game on an error by Avon Park.

Tad Norman's RBI single into left gave Okeechobee the lead for good with the score 3-2.

Avon Park was held to just one hit from the second through the fifth innings, when AP scored two in the fifth on one hit and two walks.

Kelly drew a walk, stole second and reached third on a single by Garret Zeegers then scored on a wild pitch. Daniel Leyva's grounder plated Zeegers, but Crews forced a shallow fly-out to end the threat.

Crawford came on in relief in the sixth and tallied two strikeouts to preserve the win.

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