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6A: St. Petersburg can't find 'clutch hits'

By Bob Putnam, Times Staff Writer
In print: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

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ST. PETERSBURG — St. Petersburg is not the kind of team to have a runner sit tight until a teammate launches one in the corner or over the fence.

The Green Devils prefer to generate offense one base at a time with hit-and-runs, steals, bunts, sacrifices and squeezes.

That approach helped St. Petersburg get 12 runners on base in Tuesday's Class 6A region quarterfinal against Lakeland. Trouble was, the Green Devils were never able to find a table cleaner to bring in the table setters.

St. Petersburg stranded 11 of those runners in a 4-1 loss in 10 innings.

"It seemed like we were waiting for something to happen," Green Devils coach Stefan Futch said. "There were a lot of two-out opportunities, but we just lacked that clutch hit."

Lakeland's Josh Lucas and St. Petersburg's Jacob Barnes both pitched gems and each lasted until the sixth inning. That made runs hard to come by.

The Dreadnaughts (21-8) took the lead in the second inning when Eric Barber drew a walk, moved to third on a single by Daniel Rockhaold and scored on a sacrifice fly by Drew Hutchinson.

The Green Devils (18-11) tied it in the fourth when Gordon McLean doubled, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Tyler Moll and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jordan Clay.

The score remained the same until the 10th inning when Lakeland scored three runs off two throwing errors.

"We can't make defensive mistakes like that in a tie game," Futch said. "It cost us."