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Softball: Relaxed Seahawks Squeeze Past Zephyrhills

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By EDDIE DANIELS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 3, 2009

Updated: 03/04/2009 12:09 pm

LAND O' LAKES - Sunlake coach Johnny Dawkins admitted Tuesday night that he was unusually calm entering the bottom of the seventh inning against Zephyrhills.

Heightening, or at least what should have heightened the tension, was the game being knotted, 6-6.

"I knew that Meghan would battle and shut them down as much as she could," Dawkins said of freshman pitcher Meghan Durbin. "She battled. I knew we had the top of the order coming up and believe me, there's nobody in Pasco County I'd rather have come up than Alex Rodgers."

Rodgers, who led off the bottom of the seventh inning, blasted a triple deep into left field and teammate Courtney Durbin follwed that up by driving her home with another shot to left, giving the Seahawks a 7-6 victory.

Sunlake (9-3) jumped out to a 6-0 advantage by the bottom of the third inning. The Bulldogs (4-4) answered back with two runs in the fourth and three more in the fifth, cutting their deficit to 6-5.

Zephyrhills sophomore Samantha Crews started off the top of the seventh with a base hit to right field, then stole second base on the first pitch of Christin Boettcher's at-bat.

Boettcher flew out to centerfield for the inning's first out. The next batter, Lauren Pasquale, walked. During Pasquale's plate appearance, Crews took third base.

Crews tied the game, 6-6, on Lacey Cook's sacrifice fly to centerfield.

"We just fell behind 6-0, but we battled back," Zephyrhills coach Craig Milburn said. "You make it tough on yourself any time you fall behind six runs.

"I just told them, let's fight our way back. I really thought we'd come back. A hit in the last inning would have been big, but we just fell too far behind."

That set up the timely hitting of Rodgers and Courtney Durbin.

This is the fifth win in the last six games for Sunlake, who will travel to Nature Coast Friday and host Pasco next Tuesday. Zephyrhills will host Springstead Thursday.

Reporter Eddie Daniels can be reached at (813) 948-4214

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