Hancock 9-10 All-Stars advance in district tourney
The Hancock Little League 9-10 All-Star team sent a message it can play with anybody in District 9 during pool play in the district tournament.
After an impressive showing in a losing effort to perennial powerhouse South Fort Myers, it cruised to an easy win against Cape Coral National before coming from behind to defeat Cape Coral American to advance to the championship round that was set to begin Monday against Buckingham.
The 9-10 All-Stars have used the bats and a team approach to pitching to help them advance, according to coach Chip Busbee, who added that many of his players were together last year.
“We have a lot of guys back from last year. We’ve been hitting the ball well,” Busbee said. “We’ve jelled real well because they’ve been together for a while.”
Rontrez Johnson, who had several clutch hits this past week, said being together as much as they have is “exciting.”
“It’s exciting to say the least. It’s also boring at the same time because you’ve met these kids already,” Johnson said.
Against South Fort Myers, Hancock lost 5-2 in a game that was delayed by more than two hours by lightning, but was close to the end.
“I was a neck-and- neck game. We just made some mental errors and couldn’t hit the ball. We can play with them. We just have to hit the ball in key situations,” Busbee said.
“We got a little tired because of the wait. South stepped it up and put the ball in play,” said the coach’s son Blake Busbee.
Ethan Ackerson, Jacob Mueller and Gary Kamphouse teamed up on the hill to keep Hancock close. Busbee said both can be relied upon to eat up innings.
Hancock got its hitting shoes on Wednesday against Cape National, pulling away for an 11-1 win that ended in the bottom of the fourth by the mercy rule.
Ackerson had a big game at the plate as a leadoff man.
“We didn’t need to hit home runs, it was just about base hits and driving them in that way,” Busbee said. “We played great defense and didn’t let the ball get past us.”
In a do-or-die game at Cape American, Hancock was behind 5-1 in the first inning before they settled down and started hitting the ball.
Still, Hancock trailed 8-6 after four and desperately needed a spark.
Johnson provided it.
After his two-run single in the third got Hancock back on top 6-5, he another in the fifth to give Hancock the lead for good as they scored nine runs in the fifth and held on for a 15-10 victory.
“We spotted them a lot of runs and our defense let us down. But we battled back and won,” Busbee said. “We got a big hit in a key situation and finally got the bats going.”
“We’ve been hitting real good and driving in a bunch of runs. We did well against South, but we didn’t get the big hits like we did against Cape National,” Kamphouse said.