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Youth baseball: Greater Naples 9-10s win state tournament
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FREEPORT — Just call Greater Naples the Comeback Kids.
Its coach does.
Greater Naples came back from a four-run deficit in the third running Tuesday night to win the 9- and 10-year-old state tournament championship 7-4 over Martin County, a team they had lost to in pool play.
"You can't say I didn't tell you so," Greater Naples coach Chad Ott said after nearly a 30-minute celebration. "It talks measures to the size of their heart. They don't get down when they get down."
Greater Naples finished the tournament 4-1 and came back in four of those games. It is 12-2 this summer through the district, the sectional and now the state tournament.
Starting pitcher Billy Zeliff started Greater Naples' rally in the third inning with a double. He scored when Matt Vetter reached on an error. The next batter, Chris Riley, knocked in Casey Santos-Ocampo to bring Greater Naples within 4-2.
They tied the game in the fourth when Will Collins scored after B.J. Minarcin reached on an error and then Santos-Ocampo drove in John D'Ameilio.
After a walk to start the fifth inning, Naples had two quick outs when Will Collins drove in Riley to take a 5-4 lead. D'Amelio then started a stretch of three straight base hits. Minarchin drove in Collins and Santos-Campos capped the comeback win by scoring D'Amelio.
"Unbelievable," Ott said. "There's been more than a few evenings when we had to do that. I was concerned when they jumped up 4-0 on us. We've never faced anything like that. They just found balls and hit them hard."
Zeliff pitched four innings and allowed four runs on six hits. After Martin County scored its four runs in the first two innings, Zeliff settled down and retired five straight batters and then six of the next seven.
Santos-Ocampo came in and finished the game with two innings of relief and allowed just two hits.
"At the end of the day I think us losing that first game to them gave us a lot of confidence," Ott said.
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Congratulations Boys!
#1 Posted by Toesmom on July 23, 2008 at 9:59 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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