Sebring Overpowers AP

OKEECHOBEE - After seeing their potent offense limited to three hits in Saturday's extra-inning loss to Okeechobee, the Sebring All-Stars, paced by Tommy Bertoniere's three-run homer and four RBI, beat Avon Park 15-3 on Sunday in the second round of the Dixie 14-year-old boys District 8 tournament at the Okeechobee Sports Complex.

"We came back strong and played a good game after a tough loss to Okeechobee," said Sebring coach Bill Westergom. "We swung the bats, took the base-on-balls and got good pitching.

"Our defense has been solid in both games and we just need to be aggressive with the bats and score some runs."

The loss eliminated Avon Park from the double-elimination tournament, while the win moved once-beaten Sebring into a matchup at 6 tonight against Clewiston, which lost to unbeaten Okeechobee by a score of 15-0 in Sunday's other game.

A Sebring win tonight against Clewiston would force a second game against Okeechobee, which would begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game (see Wednesday's Highlands Today for complete coverage).

Only the District 8 champion advances to the state tournament in Marianna.

Sebring got rolling in the top of the second inning against Avon Park right-hander Raymond Aguilar.

Zach Osha drew a leadoff walk and catcher Kyle Yarbrough followed with a double to left-center field to score Osha.

Yarbrough advanced to third base on a wild pitch and trotted home on a sacrifice fly to right field by Slade Copeland for a 2-0 lead.

Sebring, which hammered out eight hits, flexed its offensive muscle in the third inning.

Shortstop Seth Abeln lined a leadoff double and Gunnar Westergom worked Aguilar for a walk.

That brought up Bertoniere, and the left-handed power hitter tomahawked a fastball over the right-field fence for a three-run homer.

"It was a fastball up, and I pretty much knew it was gone when I hit it," Bertoniere said. "It was tough to lose to Okeechobee, but it was fun to come back and play against Avon Park."

After the home run celebration at the plate, Sebring tacked on another run when Osha walked, moved to second on a balk, advanced to third on a ground out and scored on another balk by Aguliar for a commanding 6-0 lead.

Avon Park answered in the bottom of the frame.

Aguliar drew a two-out walk off of Westergom, Cole Jones singled and both runners moved up on a balk.

Mitchell Roland came through with a single to center field to score Aguilar and Jones to trim the deficit to 6-2 and Abeln came on in relief of Westergom.

Abeln retired the next hitter to end the threat and Sebring went back to work on offense.

Abeln doubled to lead off the fourth inning, Westergom walked and Bertoniere followed with a run-scoring single for his fourth RBI, Osha then blooped a two-run single to center field for a 9-2 lead.

Avon Park, which had four hits, scored its final run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Jones singled off of Abeln, stole second base and raced home on Roland's double to right field.

After a 45-minute lightning delay, the game resumed and Sebring tallied four runs in its final at-bat.

Copeland came on for Sebring and the right-hander retired Avon Park in order to seal the district tournament win.

For Sebring, it's win or go home.

"It doesn't matter who we play on Tuesday night," said coach Westergom. "We made it hard on ourselves by falling into the losers' bracket, and we just need to take it one game at a time."