Floridians going for back-to-back championships

Aug. 22, 2008: Tallahassee, Fla., catcher Garrett Johnson hauls in a pop up by Nederland, Texas, batter Stephen Schlett (8) during their semifinal game of the Babe Ruth 14-year-old World Series Friday evening at Adams Field. Lisa Bul photo/The Patriot Ledger

By IAN SPENCER
The Patriot Ledger

QUINCY -- Tallahassee, Fla., has been to a Babe Ruth World Series before.

And besides an opening-night loss to Quincy, the team has acted the part.

After winning three consecutive games to take the No. 1 seed heading into the elimination round, the defending Ruth 13-year-old Series champs bested Nederland, Texas, 4-2, on Friday and advanced to the title game of the 14-year-old tournament at Adams Field.

Tallahassee will play Norwalk, Conn., at 1 p.m. Saturday.  Norwalk earned the right to bat in the bottom of the inning on a coin flip after the Tallahassee victory.

Winning pitcher Tom Watson pitched a complete-game six-hitter and struck out nine for the Southeast Regional champions.

“(Watson) had to go out there and pitch a game of games and he did that,” Tallahassee manager Mike Harrison said. “That is a great, great team in Nederland.”

Harrison credited coaches Ryan Solberger and Mike McLeod as well as his team’s experience for much of its success.

“It’s helped tremendously,” he said of the team’s championship run last year. “They’ve been around a lot of situations and have supreme confidence that they can come through and win any game.”

Nederland bowed out of the Series after going 3-1 in pool play and beating Syracuse in a quarterfinal Thursday.  Catcher Daniel Sparrow (2-for-3) was named his team’s player of the game.

Tallahassee earned a day off with its No. 1 seeding but Harrison did not give them a break.

“Every time we’ve come back from a day off we’ve been sluggish,” Harrison said. “So we busted them hard yesterday and just treated it like another game.”

Tallahassee got its break in what was shaping up to be a pitchers’ duel on a fifth-inning ground ball by Cole Davis.  An errant throw to first allowed two runs to score, and a RBI single by Michael Ware followed to make the score 4-1.

Brett Brown was the losing pitcher despite giving up one earned run over 5 innings. Trent Fontenot and Gerran Freeman each had a single to drive in a run for Nederland.

Tallahassee pitcher Nick Shafer is expected to draw the start in the championship game.

“If we throw strikes and hit the ball we’ll be good,” said Payson Smith, who was Tallahassee’s player of the game after going 2-for-4. “Our defense is great.  We throw strikes and we’re good to go.”
 
Ian Spencer may be reached at ispencer@ledger.com.

Aug. 22, 2008: Nederland, Texas, pitcher Brett Brown delivers against Tallahassee, Fla., during their semifinal game of the Babe Ruth 14-year-old World Series Friday evening at Adams Field. Lisa Bul photo/The Patriot Ledger