By DAN HOEHNE
daniel.hoehne@newssun.com
They had their first setback, Team Florida did, Tuesday night in the Dixie Ozone World Series in Cleveland, Miss.
After eking out an opening-game win by a 2-1 score, the Sebring All-Stars went on a rampage in stomping past their next two foes, by 17-5 and 15-2 scores.
But another squad was similarly running roughshod over its' opponents, Team North Carolina from Hope Mills.
They had trounced their way to 13-1, 15-0 and 11-0 wins headed into the Tuesday night showdown between the irresistible force and the immovable object.
But when push came to shove, North Carolina did most of it in a 12-1 win, giving Team Florida its' first loss of the tournament.
Still alive, however, the team got back in winning fashion Wednesday with a 5-1 win over Kosciusko, Miss.
The Sebring sluggers came out swinging in the semifinal, with Everett Hurst going yard for a two-run homer in the first, soon followed by a solo shot by Dayvon Terry for a quick 3-0 lead.
Trevor Thomas toed the rubber for the Florida squad and worked through three scoreless innings, before surrendering a solo home run in the fourth to make it a 3-1 game.
Gabe Gomez, however, answered that with a bases-empty blast in the top of the fifth.
Consecutive doubles from Hunter Martinez and Trent Lewis then added another for the 5-1 edge the team would hold at game's end.
Justin Bickman helped make sure it stayed there, leaping and reaching over the fence to bring back a potential home run in the bottom of the inning, and Thomas worked around two seventh-inning errors to finish his complete-game effort.
For the game, Thomas allowed just four hits and struck out three.
But the team had its' work cut out for them Thursday, as North Carolina eliminated Mt. Pleasant, Texas by a 13-3 score, meaning Team Florida will need to top them twice if they hope to bring the Ozone World Series trophy home to Sebring for the third consecutive year.
Friday, August 03, 2012 - www.newssun.com/FRI-8-3-12-DixieOzone