Safety Harbor Survives Scare, Beats West Pasco 10-8 to play for District Title!

Safety Harbor All-Stars went into the sixth inning with a 10-3 lead. Our starting pitcher, John Paul, ran out of gas after an impressive game and was replaced by Gabe. Unfortunately for us, West Pasco's bats came alive, hitting Gabe's accurate pitches through the infield and dropping some in front of the outfielders, scoring a few runs.

Gabe pitching.

Coach Bob Bates brought in Tommy Daily to try and close out the game. Tommy struck out one and Gabe, now playing right field, caught a high fly ball to get the team to two outs. With bases loaded and Tommy reaching his limit of 20 pitches (any more and he couldn't pitch tomorrow and he's our starter), Coach Bates turned to Steve Javaruski to close out the game. With bases loaded, two outs and Safety Harbor leading 10-8, Javaruski threw a strike which was lined high and deep into right center field, where it was caught by Andrew Llewellyn to bring the exciting game to a dramatic climax.

Gabe hitting leftie.

All of the parents and coaches were spent. This is the farthest any Safety Harbor team has gone in tournament play for almost 10 years and they have never won a District Title.

Tomorrow we get our chance at making history. We face our arch rivals, the Countryside All Stars, at 3:00 p.m.

Gabe had a good game, going 2 for 2 and walking twice. At second base he made two ground outs, a tag out and a pop fly out. And, as stated before, he made that important catch in right field.

The game was a real nail biter and major cudos go to West Pasco for making such an impressive comeback.

So, tomorrow we will do our best to continue this wonderful streak. As Steven J likes to say, "we have two options... winning or winning big." That's become our motto. Let's see if we can make our dreams a reality.

Stay tuned...

Click on pic below to see one of Gabe's hits, this time from the right side.

Click for video.