THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 31, 1996 TAG: 9605300170
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 19 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALAN HUBBARD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 39 lines
And then there were six.
Two area teams along with squads from the Peninsula, Staunton, Woodbridge and Manassas advanced into the double-elimination championship round of the American Athletic Union state 14-and-under tournament at Churchland.
Qualifying ran Saturday through Monday with 22 games at Churchland.
The Tidewater Drillers were the only unbeaten squad in the 13-team field, marching through Pool C with a 3-1 victory over the Virginia Stars, 6-2 win over the Virginia Flames and a 15-0 pasting of the Virginia Players. Peter Robinson hurled 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief to notch the win over the Flames, while shortstop Steven Han was 3 for 4 with a double, four runs and two RBIs against the Players.
The other team from South Hampton Roads, the Virginia Blasters, finished tied at 2-1 with Staunton, but won Pool A and a bye by virtue of a 9-1 victory over the Comets. Chris Daughtrey went 3 for 4 with a triple against Staunton.
Daughtrey's drive to leftfield with two out in the seventh scored Lucas Wilkinson with the winning run in a 9-8 win over the Virginia Beach Sluggers.
The Prince William Gators, who finished 3-1, clinched the Pool B title, and the bye that goes with it, by beating the previously unbeaten Peninsula Athletics 8-7 in nine innings Monday. Joe Moore doubled and scored the winning run in the ninth and David Sandoval went the distance, striking out 10.
Championship play begins tonight at 6 p.m. at Churchland, with the Flames (2-1) from Woodbridge taking on Peninsula (3-1) on Field No. 1 and the Drillers facing the Staunton on Field No. 2.
The Blasters play the Flames-Athletics victor, and the Gators face the Drillers-Comets winner tonight at 8:30.
Play continues Saturday with two games at each field, beginning at 9 a.m. The losers bracket final is Sunday at 9:30 a.m., with the final at noon.
Sunday's finalists advance to the AAU National Championship Tournament, set for Aug. 2-10 in Kingsport, Tenn. The third- and fourth-place finishers can console themselves with a trip to the National Invitational Tournament in Cocoa Beach, Fla., also Aug. 2-10. by CNB