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WOMEN’S BASEBALL
+ Dawson makes U.S. trials roster
Kendall Dawson is now one step closer to going to Japan this September.
USA Baseball announced the former Alabama and Plant City High School catcher made the cut for the 40-woman team trials roster and is one of six players representing Florida.
After next month’s trials in Malibu, Calif., the roster will be pared down to 20 players. If Dawson survives that round of cuts, she’ll officially be a member of Team USA for the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup.
The trials will be held from Aug. 18 to 21 and, after the final cuts are made, the team will begin training from Aug. 22 to 28, at Pepperdine University.
LITTLE LEAGUE
+DeFuniak Springs wins state title
It was a good weekend for the DeFuniak Springs Senior Softball All-Stars, which took the Randy L. Larson Four-Plex by storm and won the state title.
The Section 1 champions were the only team to shut out both of its opponents in the early rounds, though runner-up East Orange came close — surrendering only three.
Lake Wales looked good for a while, especially in a 23-8 clobbering of Port St. Lucie, but a 9-2 loss to East Orange sealed their fate.
In the championship game, DeFuniak Springs cruised to a 9-2 win over East Orange and had the state title locked up by lunch time.
For complete tournament results, go to www.eteamz.com/PlantCityLL and click on the “All-Stars Dist. 4/Sect. 4” tab.
+ 9-10 baseball falls short at states
The 9-10 Baseball A team, which recently got on a roll and won Section 4, saw its momentum come to a halt last weekend.
The boys competed in the state tournament at DeLeon Park, in Fort Myers, and were swept out of the tournament in three games.
After a 6-0 loss to Oviedo in the July 18 tournament opener, Plant City nearly came up with a win over new state champion Fort Pierce on Saturday. However, the team ended up losing, 8-5 and then took a 12-2 loss at the hands of tournament host Fort Myers.
Had Plant City beaten Fort Pierce, then the Section 2 champions wouldn’t have been able to win state — Oviedo recorded a 7-0 shutout on Saturday afternoon, preventing a Fort Pierce clean sweep.
For complete results, visit floridallb.com/brackets_state/bb_09-10.php.