A longer than expected Dixie Baseball All-Stars “O”Zone (age 11-12) District 6 Tournament left Spring Hill American hoping for another opportunity.
On Saturday, with the much weather-delayed event shifting from Tampa to Anderson Snow Sports Complex due to poor field conditions, SH American fell a game short of the championship tilt, losing to Wesley Chapel American, 7-6.
Having gone 2-2 and finishing third in the tournament, SH American was left to wait and see if it would receive an invitation to the state tournament starting July 16 in Sebring.
“It was definitely disappointing,” SH American head coach Tom LoBianco said. “I think we had a lot of pressure on us the first game. The boys were nervous.”
That pressure came from last season, when a LoBianco-led Spring Hill squad won the World Series in this division. However, LoBianco noted that team had been somewhat split up between the two Spring Hill entries into this year’s district field.
The first day of the tournament, June 3, saw SH American get off to a rough start with a 9-5 defeat at the hands of Wesley Chapel National. The next day SH American ended up knocking out Spring Hill National, 9-6. SH National had lost to Wesley Chapel American on opening day, 10-4.
On June 5, SH American trounced North Tampa, 15-0. Then came Tropical Storm Colin, and for the remainder of the week North Tampa’s home field was unplayable. Finally, Spring Hill Dixie stepped in to take over hosting duties when the tournament resumed on Saturday.
“We had our backs against the wall losing our first game,” LoBianco said. “It was a game we shouldn’t have lost. It was one of those days where the other team made all the plays.
“I think if we would have played on Monday, we came back from that loss and won two games. If we could have kept the momentum, it might have changed things.”
In its final contest against Wesley Chapel American, SH American led 6-4 before giving up three runs in the sixth inning. Corey Wilkes went 3-for-3 with three runs batted in, including a home run for SH American. Brant Davis went 3-for-3 with two RBI for SH American, while Quintin Hotop and Chris Moss each had two hits.
Now SH American hopes it has a chance to get back on the field and keep working toward repeating as state and World Series champ.
“We’ve got a good team,” LoBianco said. “There’s still a lot of learning going on. We only had just shy of two weeks of practice. Now I’ve got a pretty good idea of what we need to work on and who should play where. I think we can definitely build on these games and moving forward we should have a better game plan as a team.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.