Destin 10-12 Little League All Stars go down in two against Chaires
Tina Harbuck
A failure to execute was the downfall of the Destin 10-12 Little League All Stars as they lost 5-2, 11-1 to Chaires Little League out of Tallahassee in the Florida Section 1 Tournament played in Shalimar on Saturday.
The tournament was the best two out of three with the winner going on to represent Section 1 at the State Tournament in Palm Coast later this week.
“It just came down to execution,” Destin Coach Matt Dahlman said after Saturday's games. “We didn’t execute in a bunch of situations today.
“First game was tight, with missed opportunities at the plate with runners on and made a few errors to lose the game 5-2.”
The second game was more of the same, he said.
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Chaires scored two runs in the top of the first before there was a weather delay.
When the game resumed about an hour later, Destin came out and loaded the bases, but failed to score.
In the second, Destin’s Bentlee Bailey and Cam Goins each got hits and the All Stars eventually loaded the bases, but failed to get a runner across the plate.
“We just couldn’t get the hit or productive outs we needed to push some runs across,” Dahlman said.
In the top of the third, Destin pitcher Brody Ray caught a pop fly and then struck out two to hold Chaires at 2-0.
In the fourth, Chaires scored six runs and broke open the game.
“We had two outs and an opportunity to get out of the inning with the game still 2-0, and we made some uncharacteristic errors. Some days you don’t have it and today was one of them,” Dahlman said.
In the top of the fifth, Chaires picked up two more runs on two singles and an error.
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Destin finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Ray walked and moved around on a single to left by Will Wortman. Ethan Thomas grounded out and Ray scored for a 10-1 game.
In the top of the sixth, Chaires scored its final run.
“Through it all I’m proud of these kids. We were a young team with only three 12-year-olds and we were still able to do something that only two other teams from Destin Little League have been able to do in the last 50 years and that’s win a district banner in the 12U tournament,” Dahlman said.
“The 12U Little League tournament that ends in Williamsport each year on ESPN is the biggest youth event in the world and we had some success a lot of good teams that came before us haven’t had. For that, I’m extremely proud,” he added.
Members of the team were Bentlee Bailey, McCarver Dahlman, Cam Goins, Brody Ray, Ethan Thomas, Quentin Saviola, Stephen Riggs, Will Wortman, Cannon Wilbur and Chase Wandrick.