COCOA BEACH, Fla.

Tuesday, April 17, 2001

COCOA BEACH, Fla. – The Sunshine State was warm to the Rock Hill Redmen Monday. Down 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh, the Redmen scored four times as they rallied for a 4-3 victory over Caledonia, N.Y.

"The team we faced was pretty tough. They used three pitchers and had 10 strikeouts between them," Rock Hill coach Barry Litteral said.

"We were down but our kids were still confident they could get a hit and win the game. We hit the ball hard so we knew they’d drop. And (David) Martin and (Derek) Malone gave us two key hits. We used them to our advantage."

Rock Hill was without a hit for six innings, then got two in the seventh as they won.

Jeff Crabtree walked, stole second and third, and scored on a base hit by David Martin.

Martin stole second, went to third on a passed ball, David Malone walked, and pinch-runner David Smith scored when Derek Malone singled.

Shawn Cade walked to load the bases and Jeff Bridges struck out on a full-count pitch. But the pitch got away from the catcher who threw to first base to complete the strikeout only to throw the ball over the first baseman’s head and allowed the tying and winning runs to score.

"We were a little more patient and that’s when we got three of our six walks," said Litteral.

Caledonia took a 1-0 lead in the first on a single, stole base, and another base hit before a double play ended the inning.

The lead went to 3-0 in the third when Schultz singled, Preston walked with two outs, a passed ball scored a run, and an error scored the second run.

Crabtree got the win as he struck out 10, walked just two, and allowed only four hits.

"Crabtree pitched one heck of a game," said Litteral.