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Blue Streaks Sneak Past Green Dragons

Mark Pinson, Highlands Today

Sebring's Cody Higgins tossed a complete-game seven-hitter and Sebring took advantage of five Lake Placid errors to post a 4-2 victory on Thursday at Head Field.

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By MARK PINSON

Highlands Today

Published: February 21, 2009

AVON PARK - Senior right-hander Cody Higgins tossed a complete-game seven-hitter and Sebring took advantage of five Lake Placid errors to post a 4-2 victory in the Early Bird Tournament at Head Field on Thursday night.

Higgins, who struck out five and issued no walks, got stronger as the game progressed to help the Class 4A Blue Streaks improve to 1-1 on the season.

"I started off a little sluggish but I worked the kinks out as the game progressed," Higgins said. "I got ahead in the count, kept my fastball down in the zone and my curveball started falling over the plate the last few innings.

"I even got my change-up working late in the game and I just wanted to do whatever I could to help us get a win."

The sloppy loss dropped the Class 3A Green Dragons to 0-2.

"We had one bad, bad inning where we fell apart," said Lake Placid veteran coach Dan Coomes. "We made a few errors and missed the cutoff man a couple of times and it cost us.

"But it's nothing that can't be corrected, and even with all of our mistakes we had the tying run at the plate in the last inning."

The Green Dragons got on the board in the bottom of the first inning when shortstop Logan Smith singled and scored on a two-out error by the Blue Streak infield for a 1-0 lead. Lake Placid senior hurler Perry Mason breezed through 2 2/3 innings before things stated to unravel.

Center fielder Evan Lewis drew a two-out walk and Higgins followed with a line drive to right-center field that caromed off of Mario Gonzales's glove. Lewis scored easily and the fleet-footed Higgins raced all the way around the bases before the ball got back into the infield.

Shortstop Cody Hoffner lined a double down the right-field line, Dustin Lang reached on an error and another error on a ground ball by Gus Williams allowed two more runs to cross the plate for a 4-1 lead.

"Everything we did wrong we can fix," said Coomes. "The biggest thing we need is a win and we just need to play a game where we don't make mistakes.

"We played two practice games and looked good and now the first two games of the season we're making all kinds of mistakes, but we're going to keep working hard to get better."

Lake Placid scratched a run out in the bottom of the fourth inning when Colby Delaney stroked a leadoff double and CW Vought ripped an RBI single to trim the deficit to 4-2.

But Higgins bore down to retire the next three Green Dragon hitters to escape further damage.

Mason kept Lake Placid close as the right-hander scattered six hits in five innings of work and Delaney came on to toss two scoreless innings of relief.

The Green Dragons tried to mount a rally in their last at-bat as Zach Heckman lined a leadoff single.

David Hodge followed with a bloop to center field that Lewis somehow managed to catch and then alertly threw to first base to double up Heckman.

Higgins struck out the last Dragon hitter to seal the win.

"Cody pitched well and got better as he went along," said veteran Blue Streak coach Hoppy Rewis. "He said he was throwing better as the game went on and that's what you like to hear.

"We're a young team and we're still shuffling guys around to different positions and trying to figure out our lineup."

Lake Placid is back on the diamond with an away game at DeSoto on Thursday, while Sebring is back in action with a District 10 game at Palmetto on Tuesday and the Blue Streaks host Bartow on Thursday night.

"That's a tough trip for a young team so early in the season because Palmetto has a good ballclub," said Rewis. "We're not so young age wise, but we are experience wise and next week should give us an idea of what these kids can do."

Mark Pinson can be reached at 863-386-5837 or mpinson@highlandstoday.com

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