SPRING HILL – It took until the 11th inning for Spring Hill American White and South Sumter to score a run on a soggy Thursday night.
One batter into Friday’s rematch, a winner-take-all championship game in the Dixie Baseball AAA Minors (ages 9-10) All-Stars District 6 Tournament at Anderson Snow Sports Complex, the scoring began and rarely stopped, particularly on the home side.
This time SH American White, having won 2-0 the previous evening to extend the double-elimination tournament, needed only 3 ½ frames to dust South Sumter by mercy rule, 17-4.
“It’s an amazing job by these guys,” SH American White head coach John McMurdo said. “We were kind of figuring it would come down to us at the end here, two out of three type thing. Obviously the other teams were great, too, and we had some close games moving along. But as far as losing that first game (9-5 to South Sumter on Tuesday), these guys just picked up and moved on.
“Last night, the battle, that was the best game of the whole tournament, I think. You can’t get much better baseball than that. It was amazing. Some of the plays that were made, there weren’t just great plays made, there were amazing plays made.
“Today we came in with our pitching and we still had some pitching left, we go pretty deep there. I thought Brandon (Higgins) pitched a great game today, he pitched a complete game. And obviously we had a great day on offense.”
South Sumter (4-2) actually got things started with a leadoff home run off the bat of Rashad Johnson in the top of the first inning. Jackson Gill plated another run later in the frame on a fielder’s choice.
But SH American White (5-1) rallied right back with six runs in the bottom half. Andrew Ward walked to lead off and scored on a single by Zachary Hotop. Travis Clark added a run-scoring single and Brady McMurdo drove in a run on a groundball to shortstop that was booted for an error, allowing another to score. McMurdo eventually came across on a wild pitch, and Jacob Barnum worked a bases-loaded walk.
In the bottom of the second, SH American White sent 14 batters to the plate and pushed 10 runs across, getting runs batted in on singles by Raymond Groetsch and Hotop. The host squad also took advantage of five walks, a hit batter, an error and numerous wild pitches.
After South Sumter got two back on a two-run homer by Jay Strawder in the third, Cameron Najuch’s RBI single in the bottom of the inning tacked on another run. Higgins worked around a single and a walk to close it out in the fourth.
It was a solid performance for Higgins, who stepped in with Dalton Williams and Groetsch having thrown 75 pitches the previously night. South Sumter had likewise used up its top two pitchers on Thursday, and struggled to find someone else to throw strikes, as three different players combined to issue 11 walks.
“Pitching in these tournaments, especially with the new rules from Dixie, it used to be innings, now it goes by pitch count,” Coach McMurdo said. “As a team, we’ve really got to manage that well. That’s where it helps to have the depth, because you’re able to keep your guys ready if you need to.
“Obviously last night we let our one and two go the full distance because you’ve got to win that game to get to today, put it all out there. But we also had a lot of confidence sending Brandon to the hill today to do the job and we had two or three behind him that were ready to come in if we needed it.”
Despite Friday’s outcome, both teams are headed to the state tournament in Marianna starting July 15. SH American White includes seven players that McMurdo led to state and World Series titles as AA Rookies (age 7-8) in 2015.
“It was tough. Any time you go down a game, you know you have to win the next three games to advance and win this thing. That’s a good accomplishment,” Coach McMurdo said. “But I don’t put anything past these guys. This group’s been together a long time and they always seem to find a way to figure it out. So hopefully that can carry on through the state and hopefully better things from there.
“It shows a lot about their character, their heart. These guys, a majority of them have played a really long time together. They don’t get rattled real easy. They stick together, they keep their heads up. We keep reminding them not to beat themselves, go out there, give it their best, and whatever happens, happens. But when these guys all come together and click, they’re a pretty tough team to beat. They proved that again this year.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.