Little Big Man

Ty Little was just looking to get a base hit to keep Sebring's rally going, but he overestimated the power of his bat just a bit.

Little connected on the perfect swing for a rare walk-off grand slam to power Sebring to a 9-7 comeback victory over Lake Placid to win the championship in the Dixie Youth Majors (ages 11-12) "O" Zone District 8 tournament at Lake June Recreational Complex.

"I still don't believe it," Little said. "I didn't think there was anything special about that hit at all. I wasn't even thinking about it when I rounded the bases, but when I passed third and saw my teammates huddled around home plate, that's when it sunk in."

The grand slam was Little's first ever home run in Dixie baseball.

Teammate Garrett DeRoss could be heard telling Little before his at-bat to not swing for the fences -- a philosophy that Ty's father Terry Little didn't agree with.

"I just said to myself why not swing for the fences," said Terry who was handed the grand slam baseball by his son after the game. "This is going someplace special in our house."

Both teams advance to the state finals in East Lakeland.

Down 7-4 heading into their final at-bats, Sebring head coach Charlie White overhead his coaches begin talking about batting order and strategy for the possible third and deciding game. White's tone took a decided turn after hearing that kind of talk.

"We're not playing a second game so let's talk about this game and how we're going to win it," White said. "This game isn't over yet."

Alex Forde and Ryan Davidson got things started by reaching on a walk and single, respectively then advanced to second and third on a wild pitch with one out. Tyler Bertoniere struck out swinging but beat out the throw to first on a passed ball to load the bases.

Forde scored on a single up the middle by Ely White to cut the lead to two.

Little walked up to the plate and DeRoss, who hit a home run on Monday, could be seen warming up for his chance to hit a second, but he wouldn't get the chance. Little's swing seemed to be in slow motion and the ball just kept going and going before landing in the grove over the left field fence and Sebring erupted in celebration.

"It never crossed my mind that this is the way the game was going to end," White said. "[Ty] is a good hitter, but he'd never hit a home run in a game before. I was of course just wanting him to get a hit and maybe score a couple of runs to tie the game.

"I'm still in total shock. I felt responsible for the blunder with the lineup and that I let these kids down, but they kept fighting out there and never gave up."
Jonathan Struck was called out in the fourth inning for batting out of order that put two outs on the board, but Tyler Bertoniere's RBI single scored Jacob Hamilton to cut the LP lead down to two.

Lake Placid head coach Don Cram was proud of his kids and was in awe himself over the grand way the game ended.

"We stayed right with Sebring and we're looking forward to competing in the state tournament," Cram said. "We didn't expect [Ty] to hit a home run. We were looking to trade a run for an out, but [Ty] did a nice job and you can't take anything away from Sebring. They played until the final out."
Lake Placid looked to be the team to beat in the early going, as the host squad built a 4-0 lead after the first inning.

Tyler Carr and Alex Miller were on second and third with no outs and Nathan Stanley's single looked to be routine, but Sebring bobbled the pick-up to allow Carr to score on the error. Catcher Josh Montero's ground out plated Miller and Stanley avoided the tag in a rundown along the third base line to score.

With Heath Harris and Blain Daum on second and third, Justin LaRosa's hard-hit grounder scored another run for the four run advantage.

Carr was money on the mound for Lake Placid, as his fast ball and change-up kept Sebring batter's off-balance and searching for answers, allowing just two walks and no hits in the first two innings.
Sebring cut the lead down to one in the third when Joey Staffieri's two-run double into center ignited the offense and Little's single into the gap in center plated another run and gave the team some much-needed confidence.

But Lake Placid responded with two runs on an RBI single by Justin Mason that was misplayed by the Sebring defense that allowed an unearned run cross the plate to up the lead to three runs after the top of the fourth.

"We weren't hitting the ball well at the start of the game," White said. "I think we may have been a bit impatient at the plate, plus [Tyler] was mixing up his pitches. He's got a really good arm and kept us at bay for most of the game.

"All we could hope for is that he would make a mistake and we'd have an opportunity to take advantage of it. I'm very proud of my kids. They showed that they've got the character to win these kind of games and it's going to serve us well at the state tournament."