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Baseball: LaBelle Tops Avon Park

Mark Pinson, Highlands Today

Avon Park senior hurler Buddy Duke allowed only three hits, but LaBelle took advantage of those hits to edge the Red Devils by a score of 1-0.

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Highlands Today Staff Report

Published: March 28, 2009

AVON PARK - Avon Park senior hurler Buddy Duke allowed only three hits, but LaBelle took advantage of those hits to edge the Red Devils by a score of 1-0 in non-district high school baseball on Thursday night at Head Field.

"Buddy pitched a great game," said Avon Park coach Mort Jackson. "We had men in scoring position quite a few times, but couldn't get the key hit when we needed it.

"We played a good game and didn't make an error, but we couldn't string any of our four hits together."

The loss dropped the Red Devils to 3-11 on the season.

Avon Park is participating in the Lake Placid tournament, which begins on Monday and runs through Wednesday, since the high schools in the Heartland are off for spring break.

"Our pitching and defense has really improved the last few games," said Jackson. "Now we just need our offense to get in gear and we'll be in good shape."

BASEBALL: DeSoto 2, Lake Placid 1

LAKE PLACID - Lake Placid right-hander CW Vaught pitched a complete game, but DeSoto rallied to beat the Green Dragons 2-1 on Thursday night at Roger Scarborough Stadium.

Lake Placid took the early lead, but the Bulldogs used a pair of hits, a walk and some speed on the bases to scratch out a pair of runs for the non-district win.

"CW pitched a great game," said Green Dragon coach Dan Coomes. "We just couldn't get anything going on offense to support him.

"Our defense continues to improve and we just need to start swinging the bats."

SFCC SOFTBALL: Game 1: Polk 7, SFCC 1 Game 2: Polk 4, SFCC 2

LAKELAND - It's the little things that seem to be holding the South Florida Community College softball team back.

The Panthers made a couple of costly errors and Polk CC took advantage by sweeping a Suncoast conference doubleheader by scores of 7-1, 4-2 on Thursday.

"We made a couple of errors in the first game and Polk had four or five flares that fell in for base hits to score their runs," said South Florida coach Carlos Falla. "The second game we didn't swing the bats and two of Polk's runs were unearned.

"We didn't do anything very well and we continue to show no patience at the plate by swinging at pitches out of the strike zone."

The loss dropped South Florida to 5-8 in conference play and the Panthers are back on the diamond on Tuesday with a road game at Hillsborough.

The Highlands Today sports department can be reached at 863-386-5841 or sports@highlandstoday.com.

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