By By Tony Krausz / assistant sports editor
April 25, 2004
Northeast Lauderdale navigated its way through the opening two days of the MHSAA Class 4A four-team baseball regional to perfection.
The host Trojans (21-8) picked up a 7-4 win in Saturday's opening game against the Florence Eagles to advance to Monday's championship game at Glynn Frazier Field. Northeast will meet D'Iberville at 4 p.m. in the regional final.
D'Iberville defeated Florence in the final game on Saturday 11-6 in nine innings to advance to the final round of the regional. D'Iberville beat Vancleave 10-6 in the second game of the day.
"The ball is in our court," said Northeast Lauderdale head baseball coach Steve Nelson. "This is exactly what you want to win the first two."
Trojans designated hitter Mark Snyder gave his team the lead for good in the top of the third inning with a two-run double down the left-field line. The double broke a two-run tie, bringing home Chad Brunson and Nathan Peden for a 4-2 Trojans lead.
"Coach said to get things rolling," said Snyder, who hit a double into the right-field corner in the top of the second. "The ball looked like a beach ball coming at me. I wanted to get up to bat every time."
Northeast took its first lead of the game an inning earlier, after Peden and Snyder led off the second with a single and double respectively.
Trojans second baseman Chris Oubre drove in the two base runners when the Eagles were unable to handle his infield hit to take a 2-0 lead, but Florence posted two runs of its own in the bottom of the second with an RBI double from Richard Bullock, who went 3-for-3 with three RBIs, and another run scored on an error to tie the game.
Northeast didn't let Florence erase the lead again in the bottom of the third, as Trojans starting pitcher Jason Pritchett induced three straight groundouts to put the Eagles down in order.
"Whenever your team gets some runs for you, it is always good for you to keep the other team from getting any runs back," Pritchett said. "It gets you on top of things."
The Trojans increased their lead to 6-2 in the top of the fourth inning with back-to-back doubles by Pritchett and center fielder Cory Chance. Pritchett's double brought home right fielder Andrew Siciliano, and Chance's two-bagger brought in Matt Anderson, who pinch ran for Pritchett.
Siciliano tallied Northeast's final run of the game, sending a solo home run over the left field wall in the top of the sixth inning. It was the senior's second career home run, and his second homer in the last week.
"A lot of guys did a lot of things and didn't quit," Nelson said. "They knew this group from Florence wasn't going to quit. We kept putting the ball in play, and we didn't strike out a lot."
Florence pressed Northeast in the bottom of the sixth, scoring a pair of runs off a single by Bullock to knock the Trojans' lead down to two, but Peden took over the pitching duties in the bottom of the seventh and ended the game striking out the last batter.
Pritchett (4-3) recorded the win, giving up four runs, three earned, on six hits with six strikeouts in six innings of work. Peden notched two strikeouts and gave up two hits to pick up the save.
"(Pritchett) threw a gutty performance," Nelson said. "He hadn't thrown a whole lot this year, but he came through when it was time. Nathan got a big pop fly to the right fielder, and he came back and struck out the last guy. That is what we expect."
D'Iberville 11
Florence 6
Kyle Clinton went 3-for-5 for Florence, and Niles Moseley and Terrance Griffin each went 2-for-4.
D'Iberville 10
Vancleave 6
Vancleave stranded 16 base runners in the loss, and Ty Summerlin paced Vancleave's offense with a 3-for-5 performance and two RBIs.