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Highlands Today

'Chobee sweeps Sebring

Matt Flowers/Highlands Today

Sebring's Brian Dixon steals third base as Okeechobee's Lane Rhuda waits for the throw during Saturday's Dixie Boys (13) District 8 tournament at Max Long Recreational Complex.

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By MATT FLOWERS For Highlands Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 29, 2009

SEBRING - Wth the 14-year-old Dixie Boys only beginning the slow march through a five-team bracket, the 13-year-old Sebring and Okeechobee All-Stars played a best-of-three series to determine the District 8 title beginning Saturday at Max Long Recreational Complex.

Saturday's contest saw Sebring fall into an early six-run hole, but rally to take the lead, before Okeechobee mounted a comeback of its own to take a 15-9 decision.

The two teams faced off again Sunday morning with Okeechobee falling behind by two runs, before the boys in purple rallied for a 6-2 win and the District 8 championship.

The district title earns Okeechobee a berth in the Dixie Boys (13) state tournament in Marianna in July.

In Saturday's opening-round loss, Sebring fought valiantly to make a run at the talented Okeechobee squad before falling just short.

"The boys really fought hard," said Sebring head coach Joe Staffieri. "We came from behind early and were up 9-6, but then we made a few mental errors and gave them more outs than they should've gotten."

Run-scoring singles from Christian Crews and Brian Butler, and a two-run double from Andre Morris gave Okeechobee a 6-0 lead in Saturday's game.

Sebring refused to fold and took advantage of several walks to mount a rally of its own.

Joey Staffieri drove in two with a shot to the gap in right-center field and Carlton Borecky followed with a run-scoring single to cut the Okeechobee lead to two.

Right-handed reliever Chris Hensley struck out four batters and the Sebring defense put Okeechobee's bats to rest for the next two innings, as the Sebring offense geared up once again in the bottom of the third inning.

Brian Dixon reached on a fielder's choice but disrupted the Okeechobee defense with aggressive baserunning as he stole second and third and used a missed pick-off attempt to trot home and bring Sebring within one.

Again Sebring loaded the bases, setting up an RBI rip to center field from Ty Little and Santos Bencomo sent one even deeper to center field for a two-run double to give the boys in blue a stunning 9-6 lead.

"I love the way we hit the ball," said Coach Staffieri. "We're making good contact and putting ourselves in position to do good things.

"We just need to eliminate the mental mistakes."

Okeechobee would ride the top portion of its lineup for the next three innings beginning with Morris, Kutter Crawford and Seth McWhorter who all contributed run-scoring singles in the fourth as Okeechobee reclaimed the lead at 10-9.

Another RBI by McWhorter in the seventh inning and the speed of Crews on the bags gave Okeechobee a 15-9 lead that Sebring could not overcome.

"I told them not to hang their heads," said Coach Staffieri. "Okeechobee made some big plays, but we did a lot of good things as well."

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