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Highlands Today

'Chobee slides past Sebring

Matt Flowers, Highlands Today

Sebring shortstop Gus Garcia tags out Okeechobee's David Coleman during Friday night's Dixie Boys (14) District 8 championship game at Max Long Recreational Complex.

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By MATT FLOWERS

For Highlands Today

Published: July 5, 2009

SEBRING - With heavy rainfall postponing the contest for two days and the standing water making the fields at Max Long Recreational Complex look more like a small replica of the Great Chain of Lakes, the championship game of the Dixie Boys (age 14) District 8 tournament was finally played on Friday night.

Having taken down previously undefeated Okeechobee in dramatic fashion on Tuesday night, the Sebring All-Stars looked to cap their remarkable run through the loser's bracket, but instead ran into a much crisper and powerful attack led by pitcher Tyler Barber as Okeechobee claimed the District 8 title with an 11-1, six-inning win.

Barber pitched all six innings for Okeechobee, allowing just one run on three hits while striking out six, but his biggest contribution came on the offensive end where he finished 4-for-4 with three doubles and five RBI.

"Yeah, he's Barber been coming up big for us all year," said Okeechobee head coach Brian Morgan. "He's got a big arm and a lot of power with the bat.

"It's usually just a matter of efficiency and he was pretty efficient tonight and did a great job for us."

The loss was a tough one to swallow for a Sebring squad that lost its tournament opener to Avon Park, but then picked up three consecutive wins over Lake Placid, Clewiston and Okeechobee to claw out of the loser's bracket and into position to win the district championship and the automatic berth in the Dixie Boys (14) state tournament in Marianna.

But the tank just seemed to run empty on Sebring coach Juan Acevedo's boys in blue, something he says is not disappointing in the least.

"I'm not really that upset," said Coach Acevedo. "These boys gave it all they had and no one really expected us to be here. Most people thought we were going two-and-out after we lost our first one, but these guys know how good they are and they fought hard to prove it.

"I think they did a great job battling back, but it just wasn't in the cards tonight and my hats off to Okeechobee, they're a great team."

Gus Garcia led the game off for Sebring with a single into right field and pitcher Mark Greenauer gave them the first lead of the night with an RBI double into right-center field.

Okeechobee would tie the score at one in the bottom of the frame while Barber and the rest of the Okeechobee defense went into shutout mode for the remainder of the game.

An error-filled third inning by the Sebring defense gave Okeechobee a 4-1 lead, but the boys in purple earned six more the old-fashioned way in the bottom of the fifth.

Macho Estremera opened the flood gates with a shot over the left-center field fence and Barber soon followed with his second consecutive two-run double.

Trenton Moustka capped off the inning with a line-drive, two-run homer that gave Okeechobee a commanding 10-1 lead. One last run-scoring double from Barber in the bottom of the sixth brought the 10-run mercy rule into play and crowned Okeechobee as the District 8 champions.

"We finally put it all together again," said Coach Morgan of his team's biggest night since a 15-1 win over Lake Placid in round one. "That's the way we hit the ball, it's just these kids need a little fire underneath them sometimes. Sebring's a good ball club and I think losing to them the other night made us determined to come out here and play hard. This is two years in a row for this team winning the district and we're excited to go back to state. They finished fourth in the state last year, but this year we're a little bit stronger.

"If we can play defense like that and hit like we know we can, we should do fine."

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