On Tuesday morning, Central High played host to a Dixie Baseball Majors (age 17-19) All-Stars State Tournament championship game that had a distinct local flavor.
Both the Hernando Youth League crew and Polk City featured a heavy amount of Hernando County high school players, with the latter pulling out a 13-4 victory.
The Polk City name was merely a financial technicality. The roster was mostly comprised of players from Hernando and Pasco counties, and helmed by long-time HYL coach Bruce Price.
In reality, the squad represented Price’s Brooksville Bulldogs travel ball team. It took on a couple players from the Lakeland area in exchange for Polk City, which only fielded a Pre-Majors (age 15-16) team, splitting the entry cost.
While with HYL, Price had led several teams to states in younger age divisions, but had never guided one to a World Series.
“With it being my first one, it felt really good,” Price said. “I’ve been chasing it for quite some time. With a good group of kids and of course they came ready to play some good baseball, it just came together.”
Polk City finished 3-1, defeating Inverness on July 9, 11-1, and HYL the next day, 3-0. However, HYL got the better of a rematch on Monday, 14-10, setting up the winner-take-all finale.
Bradley Jarvis, from Lakeland, started and earned the win over Inverness while recent Hernando High graduate Travis Ritter recorded a six-out save. Wesley Chapel’s Branden McLeod and Ritter combined for a four-hit shutout in the first meeting with HYL.
Another Hernando alum, Justin Young, started the final and collected the victory pitching six innings, and also went 5-for-5 at the plate. Former South Sumter player Isaiah Cullum drilled a three-run home run, and Hernando grad Andres Cabrera chipped in a solo shot.
“Our speed was one of our strongest strengths that we had,” Price said. “Timely hits with our speed on the base paths is how we scored those runs.”
Price’s club will now head to the World Series starting July 30 in Ozark, Ala.
“We’ve got some kids where this is their first time going, which is pretty exciting. For me as a coach, it’s my first time going,” Price said. “We’re really, really excited. We know the teams we’ll compete against are going to be really, really tough. There will be a lot of college kids there.
“I think we stack up really well. We’ve just got to pitch and hit the ball. I feel good about our chances. As long as we do both of those things, we should be in really good shape.”
As for HYL, led by Central head coach Al Sorrentino and largely a collection of Bears and Leopards, it was a 3-2 run through the tournament. It started with a 13-0 thumping of East Lakeland on July 9, and also featured a 13-0 blanking of Inverness on Monday prior to the final two clashes with Polk City.
“The kids played hard, the kids played well,” Sorrentino said. “The toughest part was playing two games on Monday and then coming back at 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning. That had an effect on us.”
Logan Place had a pair of homers each of the last two days for HYL. Thomas Sorrentino, a Central grad, hit a three-run dinger to turn around a 5-0 deficit against Polk City on Monday. Former Nature Coast player Vito Tambasco Jr. threw a complete game and drove in four runs versus Inverness.
However, in the finale HYL played without Thomas Sorrentino, as he had to attend a college class, and two more players had left for a family trip.
“We wanted to win. The guys were competitive. They worked hard. Polk City had several college guys. We competed with them. We pushed them all the way to the limit,” Coach Sorrentino said. “Everyone seemed to have a good time. We would have liked to win, but it was a worthwhile experience.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.