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St. Petersburg: The 2008 Dizzy Dean State baseball tournament got underway at Fossil Park on Saturday, June 28th
with seven of the top 10U teams in the state looking to bring home the gold. The Fossil Park team drew the team
from Lynn Haven Florida as their first opponents. Lynn Haven came out hitting and scored 2 runs in the top of
the 1st inning, but the Fossil park team re-grouped, and scored 8 runs of their own in the bottom half of the
inning. The team continued the scoring in the following innings, lead by a 3-for-3 effort from Joey Jimpie,
with both Tony Jones and Mike Chadwell each going 2-for-2, and each with a HR. The game ended 18-3 in just
3 innings behind the pitching of Justin Dahill and Jake Hale, and some fine defensive plays by the shortstop,
Ryan Cook, due to the run rule. That win would lead to a much anticipated match-up between Fossil Park and
Northwest. These two teams met twice in their District Tournament where Northwest won both of the games,
but the Fossil Park team was looking forward to the re-match. Fossil Park was able to hold down the strong bats
of Northwest with starting pitcher Mike Guidice, and relievers Sarah Snell, Justin Dahill and Jake Hale.
Mike Chadwell again lead the offense with a 2-for-3 game at the plate with 2 RBIs, and Fossil Park defeated
Northwest by the score of 11-6. That win would put Fossil Park in the winner's bracket final game on Sunday,
against a strong Bill Bond/Pensacola team. Fossil Park was ready for the challenge, as they came out hitting
and scored 12 runs in the top of the 1st inning. Starting pitcher Tyler Sankel held Bill Bond in check
giving up only a couple of runs. The Fossil bats stayed hot, with Tyler Ramsay going 2-for-2, and Mike Chadwell
and Tony Jones each going 2-for-3, and Jones legging out 2 doubles in the game. They continued to put runs on
the board, and Marcus Bradley came in to pitch in relief and shut Bill Bonds down, to give Fossil Park another
victory in 3 innings with the final score of 19-2, and getting them to the Championship round.
After Northwest's loss to Fossil Park earlier in the tournament, they worked their way through the loser's bracket,
winning their next 4 games, and were ready for the re-match with Fossil Park on Tuesday morning. Northwest scored
6 runs in the top half of the 1st inning, and were rolling. Northwest scored two more runs in the 2nd inning,
before reliever Marcus Bradley could stop the bleeding. Fossil Park did get 4 runs across in the 4th inning to
make it 4-8, but that was all the offense they had for this game and eventually lost the game by the score of
4-11. Chase Bardes lead the offense with a 2-for-3 game, and a double. Since this was only the first loss for
Fossil Park in the tournament, that meant that there would be yet another re-match with Northwest on Wednesday
morning, with the winner of that game taking home the championship.
A big crowd gathered early to get good seats for this show down, as these two teams seemed to be evenly
matched, and it was anyone's games. Once again, Fossil Park sent Mike Guidice to the hill, and he was
able to limit the strong Northwest bats to only 3 runs in his 2 innings of work. After three innings
of play, Northwest lead 3-2. Fossil Park was able to tie the game in the top half of the 4th inning
with help from a double by Joey Jimpie(2-for-4). Northwest countered with 2 runs in the bottom of the
4th inning, to take the lead back 5-3, but reliever Joey Jimpie limited them to just the 2 runs. Fossil
Park needed a big inning and they got just that. They picked up 4 runs in the top of the 5th, and lead
the game for the first time, 5-7. With Jimpie still on the hill, Northwest scored 2 runs to tie the
game back up at 7 apiece, but Jimpie worked out of a 5th inning jam and got one of Northwest's big
batters, Clay Kwiatowski, to fly out with two men on base, on a great catch by Nick Wethington at
the fence to end the inning. It all came down to the last inning. Connor Wolfe(2-for-3) lead the
inning off with a double, followed by a run scoring double by Mike Chadwell(2-for-3), to give Fossil
Park the lead. Chadwell would eventually score on a single by Nick Wethington(2-for-2) to give Fossil
Park a two run lead going into the bottom of the 6th inning. Justin Dahill would come out to pitch
the bottom of the 6th inning, and held Northwest to only one hit and one run, to hold on to the
victory, and the Championship. Mike Chadwell, who led the team with a .643 batting average and 10
RBIs was named Tournament MVP by the Tournament Committee.
By winning the State Tournament, the Fossil Park team now qualifies for the World Series to be held
in Moody, Alabama on July 19th through the 23rd. And by finishing 2nd, Northwest also qualifies for
the World Series, and will be making the trip to Alabama as well. Stay tuned for the possibility
of another re-match between these two teams. The players on the Fossil Park 10U State Champions team
are Chase Bardes, Marcus Bradley, Mike Chadwell, Ryan Cook, Justin Dahill, Mike Guidice, Jake Hale,
Joey Jimpie, Tony Jones Jr., Tyler Ramsay, Tyler Sankel, Sarah Snell, Nick Wethington, and Connor
Wolfe.
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