Rotary Breezes Past Elks

SEBRING - With the wind blowing out, the hitters had a definite advantage in Thursday night's Dixie Majors (ages 10-12) baseball league action.

Joey Staffieri went 2 for 3 - including a solo home run - to lead Rotary past Elks by a score of 6-3 at Max Long Recreational Complex.

The win improved Rotary to 7-2 on the season, and into sole possession of second place behind undefeated Pool Paradise.

"We've been swinging the bats pretty well all season," said Rotary assistant manager Juan Acevedo. "Our pitching is coming around and when we play solid defense, we're a good team.

"We've got a fairly young squad with four kids that are 10 years old, but they've got a lot of ability and they get better with every game they play."

The loss dropped Elks into third place at 6-3 on the season.

Rotary right-hander Ty Little retired Elks in the top of the first inning and then sparked the offense in the bottom of the frame.

Little lined a leadoff single into center field and stole second base. Brandon Ferretti then followed with a sharp single to left-center field to score Little, then stole second base.

Alex Gomez singled to left field with Ferretti moving to third base and Ferretti raced home on a wild pitch and Gomez advanced to second base.

Johnny Cobb capped the uprising with a single to right field off of Elks right-hander Ryan Davidson to plate Gomez for a 3-0 lead.

Elks, which had four hits, got on the board in the top of the fourth inning.

Davidson lined a one-out double off the right-center field fence and scored on an RBI single to trim the deficit to 3-1.

Elks kept the pressure on in the top of the fifth inning as Dunovan Stanton drew a base-on-balls off of Ferretti, stole second and third base and raced home on a wild pitch to pull within 3-2.

Rotary, which banged out eight hits, answered in the bottom of the frame.

Little was once again in the middle of the action as he led off with a walk and promptly stole second and third base. Gomez followed with an infield hit to score Little, stole second and third base, and motored home on a wild pitch by Jacob Cram.

Staffieri came up and deposited a fastball over the right-center field fence for a 6-2 lead.

Elks rallied in its last at-bat as Davidson doubled to right field and scored on a pair of ground outs to pull within three runs.

Ferretti induced the last Elks batter to pop-up to close out the win.

"When we play the way we're capable, we're tough to beat," Acevedo said. "We've got a good mix of youth and experience on this team and all the kids have a great attitude.

"It makes it tough to fill out the starting lineup, but that's a good problem to have."