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Late Rally Lifts Rotary Past Lions

8-RUN FIFTH DOES IT; ELKS EDGE FIREMEN

Brian Gjurgevich/Highlands Today

Lions baserunner Tracy Bentley is tagged out by Rotary third abseman Nick Staffieri in the second inning of Tuesday night's city tournament at Max Long Complex.

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By Mark  Pinson | Highlands Today

Published: May 28, 2008

SEBRING — The opening round of the Dixie Majors (ages 10-12) city tournament is well-known for its upsets and unusual happenings.

In Tuesday night's game between Lions and Rotary, it was hard to tell which team was the higher seed.
But after a slow start, Rotary displayed great resolve by overcoming a seven-run deficit to pull out a 10-8 victory at Max Long Recreational Complex.

"This was a big win for us," said Rotary coach Bobby Cannon. "We got down early and gave up some runs because our pitchers weren't sharp. But Lions changed pitchers, we started hitting the ball, and were able to have a big inning.

"You have to give Lions credit, because they played well and I told the kids they have to come ready to play because anything can happen in this tournament."

The first-round win moved Rotary into a second-round matchup on Wednesday night with Elks, which knocked off Firemen 10-9 in Tuesday night's other game.

In Wednesday night's other game, top-seeded Pool Paradise faced Highlands Today. See Friday's Highlands Today for results of both games.

Lions grabbed the early momentum as Jonathon Coker drew a bases-loaded walk off of Ty Little to plate Brian Dixon for a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Lions stayed on the prowl in the third inning as Nick Videll led off with a walk and came around to score on Dixon's double.

Tracy Bentley lined an RBI single and Coker capped the inning with a two-run single for a 6-0 lead. Rotary managed to score in the bottom of the frame as Little walked, stole second base and raced home on J.C. Cobb's base hit to trim the deficit to 6-1. Santos Bencomo led off the top of the fourth with a solo home run to left field and Perez scored Keat Waldron with a two-out hit to make it 8-1.

Rotary scored a run in the fourth off of Bencomo, who tossed four innings of three-hit ball and left with an 8-2 lead. Rotary got rolling in the bottom of the fifth as Cobb walked, Gomez singled to left off of Waldron and Joey Staffieri's pop-up was dropped for an error to load the bases with no outs.

A wild pitch scored Cobb and Brandon Ferretti lined a double to left-center field to plate Waldron and Staffieri. Ferretti then stole third base and scored on a wild pitch.

Nick Staffieri walked, Adam Greenslade was hit by a pitch, both runners moved up on a wild pitch and Little plated a run with a fielder's choice to make it 8-7.

Cobb came through with a two-run double to give Rotary its first lead of the night and another run scored on an error to give Rotary a 10-8 lead. Gomez came on in relief and Lions had the tying run come to the plate, but the right-hander struck out the last batter to seal the victory.

"That was an awesome win," Cannon said. "I'm proud of the kids because they showed a lot of heart and battled back from a tough situation."

Elks 10, Firemen 9
SEBRING — Ryan Davidson smashed a two-run homer to lead Elks past Firemen by a score of 10-9 in Tuesday night's other city tournament game.

Both teams traded punches throughout the night: Firemen led 5-3 but watched Elks rattle off five straight runs to take an 8-5 lead. The Firemen rallied, however, taking a 9-8 lead into the fifth. But a late error was the difference, pushing the Elks into the next round.

The winner of Wednesday's Rotary/Elks game will face the winner of Wednesday's Pool Paradise/Highlands Today game at 6 p.m. Thursday.

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