Tight games and triple plays: How a Gainesville Babe Ruth team rolled to the World Series.
As Gainesville’s youth-league baseball season wound down in early June, a couple of coaches thought it was too soon to call it a summer.
Why not throw together an all-star team and have a little more fun?
“We just wanted to let the kids play some more ball,” Mark Bender said,
So he and Ben Haines put together a roster of 11-year-old boys, filled out the paperwork and started practicing twice a week. They didn’t suspect they were giving birth to local baseball history.
The Gainesville Babe Ruth All Stars swept through three qualifying tournaments. Now they’re set to compete in the Babe Ruth World Series, which begins Monday at the Ocala Rotary Complex.
As best as anyone can recall, it’s the first time a Gainesville team has made a Babe Ruth World Series. So, how did kids from five different teams mesh into a juggernaut?
“They just clicked,” Bender said. “This is a great group. And they’re all good kids, which is just as important.”
There are no inflated egos (Major Leaguers, take note) or personality clashes, he said. They’re having fun, but they’ve also reached an age where winning starts to matter.
“They’re starting to realize that it’s competition,” Bender said. “It’s not just a social event with these kids.”
Their postseason run began with a second-place finish at the state tournament. The coaches figured they might have something brewing when the team won a couple of one-run games.
“Only good teams win one-run games,” Bender said.
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And only good teams come up with triple plays. In one tight game, the opponent had the bases loaded with nobody out. The batter hit a fly ball, which center fielder James Thomas caught.
He threw out the runner who’d tried to score from third base. The runner on second base tried to advance, but catcher Gerardo Barrios fired the ball to third baseman Javier Suarez, who tagged him out.
“The whole place went nuts,” Bender said.
The All Stars advanced to the Southeast Region, where they were seeded fourth in bracket play. They beat the No. 1 seed 18-2 and cruised to a 4-2 win in the title game.
Barrios was pitching a complete game, and the coaches were feeling pretty confident going into the final inning. A batter hit a pop fly near the Gainesville dugout, and catcher Mason Williams scrambled after it.
“It’s about the sixth game of the week, and it’s 300 degrees out there,” Bender said. “The kid just darts from home plate and lays out. Bam!
“I felt it when he hit the ground. That’s the kind of motivation that comes from within.”
And that’s the kind of motivation that just might bring Gainesville its first Babe Ruth World Series championship.
David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville Babe Ruth team makes World Series
