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Keystone, Tampa Bay Claim Wins

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By NICHOLAS J.E. MURRAY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 5, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - For the length of the District 6 under-10 softball All-Star championship, Cassidy Roberts had been, in the words of Coach Jim Rogers, "our most consistent hitter."

So who other than Roberts would Rogers have wanted at the plate in Keystone's last at-bat with the bases loaded, two outs and his team trailing by four runs to West Bay on Sunday afternoon?

Roberts came through with a double to the left-center field fence, driving in Gianna Passaro, Julia Rogers and Kirsten Hawkins, and advanced to third when the throw came home. She then tied the game after Kaitlyn Goley reached base on an error, and was cheering her teammates on as Goley scored from second on a single by Mikayla Sanford, giving Keystone a 9-8 win.

"The whole tournament, the five games we've played, she's been our most consistent hitter," Rogers said. "She's been putting the ball in play on almost every at-bat, she's only struck out, I think, once out of 20 at-bats, so when it comes to hitting she was definitely our most valuable player."

Keystone already had to come the long way to a title. West Bay, an amalgamation of West Tampa and Bayshore Little League, had defeated Keystone 4-2 to advance to the championship game. Keystone came through its elimination game with a 5-4 win against Tampa Bay before holding off West Bay 13-10 to force a final game.

"I thought we could beat them because we beat them last night," Roberts said. "This morning they were very pumped, and we weren't but we still came back to beat them."

West Bay had held a 7-0 lead after three innings, a lead Keystone cut to 7-4 in the fourth inning. West Bay added another run to make the score 8-4, but that only set the stage for Keystone's rally, all of which came with two outs.

"It was a great comeback," Rogers said. "We got some key bunts, key hits and our pitching held up at the end."

There wasn't as much drama in District 6's under-11 baseball championship game, but it did end dramatically as Tampa Bay Little League's Foster Lattman hit a three-run homer to give his team a 12-2 win against Bayshore Little League.

Tampa Bay ran through the tournament undefeated, scoring 58 runs in four games. In its previous game, Tampa Bay had come back from a 5-0 deficit after four innings to win 16-10 against the same Bayshore team they beat in the final.

"We've just been hitting the ball hard all tournament, from top to bottom," Tampa Bay coach Chris Kiszla said.

Tampa Bay scored in every inning, as Kyle Tucker went 2-for-2 with a pair of walks, scoring all four times he reached base. Tucker was also strong on the mound, scattering seven hits in four innings.

"It means a lot to win," Tucker said. "We play together and we have fun."

Bloomingdale Aiming For Sectional Title

Bloomingdale Little League's Major softball team, fresh off a win at the District 13 All-Star Championship, will try to add a sectional title beginning today in Dade City.

With the tradition Bloomingdale has built up, including having its Major team reach the South Regional in 2005, Coach Mike Bell said the team was aware of the reputation the league's name carries in the area.

"Year after year after year, all you have to do is go to the park and look at all the championship banners and balls," Bell said. "All these girls know what All-Stars is about at that park. We talk about it regularly."

Bloomingdale won 9-1 in the District 13 championship as pitcher Savannah Bradley struck out 14 while allowing only two hits. The team scored seven runs in the fifth inning to put the game away late, and is looking forward to trying to move onto state.

"We think we have a lot deeper pitching staff than we did a year ago," Bell said. "We feel that's going to bode well for us in sectionals, we actually start out with a doubleheader today, so we're going to have to use at least two pitchers, maybe more, so it's a good thing we've got the pitching we've got."

Tampa United Pleased With Inaugural Season

The Tampa United Volleyball girls under-18 team reached the semifinals of the USA Volleyball National Division Championships before falling in three sets, 25-17, 24-26, 16-14 to the Amarillo Elite.

After going 3-2 in pool play, the team worked its way back into the Gold bracket with three straight wins in bracket play, and then defeated Santa Barbara Elite 25-19, 21-25, 15-13 in the quarterfinals. With the program in its first year, to come so far at the National Championships meant a lot to Coach Jeff Lamm.

"It's great," Lamm said. "At the 18s level, most teams, or a good core of their players, have been playing for four years, and my team was a collection of kids from four different clubs coming together. At the beginning of the season, not one of my kids had played with another kid on that team for more than a year, so for them to come together and do as well as they did was a huge success."

That's not to say the team didn't have some proven talent on board. Tribune All-County player Kellie Catanach led the team, while all the team's seniors will play at college next season. Lamm hopes his team's success will inspire the younger teams within the program to go further next year.

"I hope so," Lamm said. "I hope that this sets the bar for the other teams as to what we want to do."

Nicholas J.E. Murray can be reached at (813) 259-8243 or nmurray@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Youth Sports for more news, notes and live game stories.

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