Lake Placid Finds A Way To Win Again

The Lake Placid All-Stars found a way to win on Tuesday when the game was on the line.

LP wasn't about to let a scrappy Marianna squad come back from a seven-run deficit, like they did against top-seeded Poinciana in the tournament's first round. Instead, Lake Placid shelled its opponents for five runs in the game-changing fifth inning to pull away for a 7-1 victory in the Dixie Youth Majors "O" Zone (ages 11-12) state tournament.

LP head coach Ed Stanley took a moment to find the words to describe his team's play over the past three games.

"We're just having fun," Stanley said. "Winning cures a lot of things, but so does just playing loose and having fun.

"This team believes in themselves, and I feel is the best hitting club in the tournament."

With the win, Lake Placid was scheduled to face the West Seminole Nationals on Wednesday night. See Friday's Highlands Today for complete coverage.

Beating Marianna gave LP a boost of confidence against a quality opponent, which could go along way in helping Lake Placid and their quest for a state title.

"I know it's a cliche, but we're just like Cinderella," Stanley said. "And we're still at the dance."

Heath Harris gave Lake Placid another sterling performance on the mound, limiting Marianna to just one run on four hits and striking out eight against their offensive-minded opponents.

"My four-seam fastball was the key for me tonight," Harris said. "I was able to pitch inside and outside and try to work the corners."

Harris chuckled when asked if he'd predicted Lake Placid would go this far in the tournament.

"I thought we'd win two games and make a good showing," Harris said. "We're dangerous now. We've got the confidence to go up against any team.

"This is not the same team that lost to West Volusia in that first game."

Lake Placid was embarrassed 12-1 in the opening round by the West Volusia American squad, but has since turned things around with their bats and solid pitching.

Holding a slim 2-1 lead heading into the fifth, Lake Placid assistant coach Don Cram told his players that the time was now to make their move.

"I just told them to go out and hit the ball," Cram said. "Sometimes they think too much before an at-bat. I told them to just play ball."

Justin LaRosa reached first on a walk with one out and reached second on a passed ball. Alex Miller's grounder caused problems for Marinana, which threw the ball over the first baseman's head to allow LaRosa to score. Another walk to Tyler Carr and a ground-rule double by catcher Nathan Stanley scored Miller and forced a pitching change.

Fielding woes plagued Marianna, which made four errors in the inning, allowing Carr and Stanley came home on the blunders.

Harris' sacrifice grounder brought home another run and LP went into the final inning with a six-run lead.

"That was huge," Stanley said. "We needed to score then and build at least a sizable lead."

But no lead is sizable for Marianna, who has made a habit of exciting comebacks.

That is until they faced Harris, who sat the first two Marianna batters down with called strikes and forced a neat grounder to Josh Montero at first to end the game and give LP a chance to play another day.

"I knew we could win, it was just a matter of us believing," Montero said. "We've been underdogs the whole tournament, and this win really validates all the hard work we've put in."

Chris Hoffman can be reached at 863-386-5827 or choffman@highlandstoday.com