TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

North Lakeland Takes District 4 Championship

ADVERTISEMENT

By DAREK SHARP

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 23, 2008

PLANT CITY - North Lakeland advanced as the Junior League champion at the District 4 All-Star tournament, but the team knows just how close Plant City could have been to taking its spot.

At the tournament in Lake Wales, a pivotal early result set the stage for North Lakeland to emerge as champs. Plant City had the bases loaded against North Lakeland, with no one out, trailing by a run in the final inning.

But North Lakeland managed to get out of trouble and win that July 9 game 6-5. Plant City won its next two games to advance to the losers bracket finals, but dropped the rematch with North Lakeland 9-4.

"We played well, but at the key times we had difficulty getting runners in scoring position across," Plant City All-Star coach Joe Bowles said.

North Lakeland went on to stun the hosts, beating Lake Wales twice in succession to win the district title.

On July 7, Plant City opened up by skunking Auburndale 10-0 behind a one-hit, 13-strikeout performance from pitcher Evan Bowles. Bobby Mondoux and Jose Molina had two hits apiece.

Then came the first meeting with North Lakeland, where Caleb Ray had a homer and a double for Plant City and Austin Gilley added two hits.

"North Lakeland was a good team. Usually they or Lake Wales are the ones that give us trouble," Joe Bowles said.

In the losers bracket, Plant City had no trouble eliminating Polk City 28-4. Evan Bowles and Mavrick Varnadore had four hits each (Bowles had a double and a triple) and Ray had the win on the mound.

Against Lakeland City on July 10, Kent Humphrey performed well getting the pitching start and Kenneth Floyd homered in a 13-3 win.

Brodie Jacks homered and Ray and Cody Smith had two hits each, but it wasn't enough in the July 11 rematch with North Lakeland. After that, North Lakeland defeated Lake Wales by scores of 7-1 and 7-4.

Also contributing for Plant City were Gilley and Jeff Hemphill.

Byron Humphrey, Ken Floyd and Jerry Hemphill formed the coaching staff with Bowles.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT