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District baseball: Zephyrhills 6, River Ridge 1

 
Published April 22, 2016

DADE CITY — Having already clinched its first playoff berth in 10 seasons, Zephyrhills captured its first district title since the state semifinalist team did it in 2000 by rallying for a 6-1 comeback win over River Ridge in Thursday's Class 6A, District 7 final.

Zephyrhills (14-13), seeded fourth and coming off a 3-2 upset win over top seed Land O'Lakes, trailed No. 2 River Ridge 1-0 and had just three hits before the top of the seventh. The Bulldogs sent 12 batters to the plate that inning, scoring six runs on five hits, three walks and an error.

"We've been swinging the bats better lately," Zephyrhills coach Rusty Guynn said. "We play a lot of small ball, but we can swing it when we need to. I told (my players), 'Let's be aggressive and go out swinging.' "

Marcus Gonzalez drove in Trey Owens, who drew a leadoff walk in the seventh, with a single to tie the score. Austin Putz followed that hit with a two-run single and three batters later Dylan Wood drove in two runs with a double down the leftfield line.

For a while, it looked like the Royal Knights' (13-10) lone run in the fourth would hold up. Dalton O'Toole walked to lead off that inning and scored on Ben Martin's sacrifice fly to right. That appeared to be all that starter Trevor Hawks would need.

Before Hawks came out of the game having allowed all six runs in the seventh, the junior right-hander had allowed just three singles with five strikeouts and four walks.

"He threw a great game," Guynn said. "He had us. We just got a couple of lucky breaks."

Dalton Gold, a little-used junior right-hander, pitched a two-hitter with four walks and three strikeouts. Zac McClellan pitched a scoreless seventh in relief.