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Sebring surges to district final

Matt Flowers, Highlands Today

Sebring's Mark Greenauer gets back safely to first base as Okeechobee's Jared Radford looks to make the tag during Monday's Dixie Boys (14) District 8 tournament at Max Long Recreational Complex.

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By MATT FLOWERS

For Highlands Today

Published: July 1, 2009

Updated:

SEBRING - With just three teams remaining in the Dixie Boys (age 14) District 8 tournament, host team Sebring was the only one yet to receive a bye in the five-team, double-elimination tournament.

After losing its opening-round game on Friday to Avon Park, Sebring had fought off elimination twice going into Monday night's showdown with undefeated Okeechobee.

Behind a great night at the plate and some spectacular defensive plays, Sebring avoided the ax for a third consecutive time by pulling out an 8-7 win in the most nail-biting finish the tournament has offered thus far.

The win removes the "loser's bracket" label for a Sebring team that now waits for the winner of Tuesday's elimination game between Okeechobee and Avon Park for a winner-take-all District 8 title game at 7 tonight at Max Long Recreational Complex.

Results from Tuesday night's elimination game were not available at press time, but for the complete story and pictures from the game, be sure to check out Thursday's Highlands Today sports section.

"We've been fighting since Friday," said Sebring head coach Juan Acevedo. "It was tough but we hung in there. I told them if they start hitting the ball then we will start winning. They clobber me when I throw batting practice and I mix it up.

"I knew they could hit the ball, they just had to come out here and show it and they did that tonight."

Big hit after big hit from Gus Garcia, Bubba Boston, Scott Cantwell and others up and down the entire lineup gave Sebring a 7-2 lead that put plenty of pressure on a sweep-minded Okeechobee team.

Sebring right-hander Mark Greenauer got the start and attacked the strike zone, letting the solid infield of Garcia, Alfred Negrin, Justin Acevedo and Johnny Vega make great plays behind him, including a beautiful bare-handed, 4-6-3 double play in the top of fifth inning.

All of which set up a dramatic mixture of luck and misfortune for both teams in a whacky final two innings.

Garcia relived Greenauer in the fifth inning, but ran into a desperate and determined Okeechobee offense in the top of the sixth.

A single from Tyler Milcot and another from Macho Estremera gave Okeechobee some runners to work with, and a pair of errors from the previously impenetrable Sebring defense cut its lead to three.

A two-out RBI single from Dalton Murray, a bad-hop, base-hit from David Coleman and another Sebring defensive blunder put two more on the board for Okeechobee, bringing them to within one run going into the seventh inning.

Billy Childer's came through with a clutch run-scoring single to left field to knot things up at seven in the top of the seventh.

But things could have been a lot worse for Sebring if it hadn't been for the outstanding catches by center fielder Dalton Helvey.

Helvey recorded all three outs in the inning, including a diving snag on a fast-falling gapper and a running catch on a towering shot that Dalton Murray sent to the warning track in deep center field.

Sebring still had one more at-bat to try and avoid extra innings with an Okeechobee team that was definitely finding its stroke.

Justin Acevedo took the first pitch right on his left ankle, sending him limping to first as the winning run.

Greenauer followed with a hard-hit grounder and Acevedo made his way to third.

An errant throw down the third-base line gave Acevedo a chance to score, and the one-wheeled warrior broke for the plate and scored just ahead of the tag to end the game and send the Sebring crowd into a frenzy.

"Everybody contributes on this team," said Sebring coach Tim Smith. "Nobody is more important than anybody. Sometimes you need one guy to step up when the others are struggling, Dalton Helvey did that tonight.

"They all did that tonight."

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