Lake City Reporter Story ideas? Contact Tim Kirby Sports Editor 754-0421 tkirby@jakecityreporter.com SPORTS Saturday, February 13, 2010 www.Iakecityreporter.com Section B FROM THE SIDELINE Brandon Finley Phone:(386) 754-0420 bfinley@lakecityreportercom Just what is too young? n this day and age where we have so many egomaniacs who like to make a spectacle out of recruiting its kind Sof refreshing to hear the story of 13-year-old David Sills, who publicly committed to USC last week. Why draw out the recruiting nonsense? Get it over with five years in advance. Of course, I'm not serious. In fact, this may be one of the more ridiculous stories about college football recruiting since the last time coach Lane Kiffin decided to dip into the tweens. Word on the street following the commitment of Sills is that,the Jonas Brothers have already confirmed their intent to play the halftime show during the 2050 Super Bowl when they'll meet the minimum age requirement of a performing artist that has been imposed on us since Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction." The saddest part isn't that Kiffin is offering Sills a scholarship. The sad part is that there are parents * out there who allow such a spectacle of their child at that age. What happened to being a kid? When I was 13 I1 had dreams of being Hulk Hogan's tag-team partner in the N.W.O. Since then, not only had the N.W.O ceased to exist, but the entire W.C.W wrestling. organization has been disbanded. Honestly, I have trouble wrapping my mind around the idea of taking a 13-year olds' word on anything, but why stop there. I hear there are kids gearing up for an opportunity to play for the Trojans at Niblack Elementary. I'm planning on having children in the next five years or so. Perhaps Lane might be interested in the golden arm of my unborn child. What does Kiffin plan on having the kid do on an unofficial recruiting trip this summer if Sills chooses to check out the campus. Surely, he won't be invited to a campus party. I guess Kiffin's going to have a movie night and invite him over to watch Disney classics. Seriously, how likely can this kid be to sign with USC in 2015? He's probably not very likely to enroll at USC when he does graduate, but I'm sure he doesn't have a problem finding a date to the the seventh grade prom. * Brandon Finley covers sports for the Lake City Reporter:, -A - B a * - Copyrighted Material - Syndicated Content .--- AvailablefromCommercial News Providers Available from Commercial News Providers - ~~-.m * 40 d- .0b-41 4.400 b-a adw w-q mm q 4mmomp MW do- a d---am D.4. -.40 - ~- - a -~. - ~.- - - m Tigers, Indians winners in Preseason Classics JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter Columbia High's Jacob Tillotson prepares to throw a pitch in a game played last season. Tillotson had five RBIs in the Tigers' 12-7 win against Baker County High in a Preseason Classic matchup in Santa Fe. Tillotson accounts for five RBIs in win By BRANDON FINLEY bfinley@lakecityreporter.com It may have been preseason, but Columbia High made a state- ment to where their baseball team stands by defeating'Baker County High, 12-7, in a preseason classic matchup in Santa Fe on.Thursday. "Baker County was actually in the initial Sunshine State baseball poll ranked number 15 in the state out of all the classifications," coach Greg Gillman said. "To play like we did, we came out real well." Blake King came up with the win as he pitched four innings for the Tigers. King left the game allowing only an unearned run as the Tigers built a 12-1 lead. Columbia's offense remained stagnant from that point, but it was able to hold onto the lead it had built early in the game. The Tigers had two home runs in the game. The first of the two came from Kellen Bailey, a sopho- more first baseman, in the second inning to give Columbia a 2-1 lead. "We weren't really counting on his bat, but he's an extremely good defensive first baseman and he just drove it out of the park," Gillman said. "From there on, throughout the night, we just hit the ball on the nose." The Tigers finished with 12 hits in the game with Bailey, Cody Blackwell, King, and Iillotson each reaching base twice. Tillotson also had five RBIs and a three-run homer to opposite field. Gillman was also pleased with the hitting of his starting pitcher. "Blake also did a real good job for us at the plate," he said. "He's one of the toughest outs in our area. He battles on every pitch and can handle about any pitch thrown to him." The second half of the preseason classic continues today at 1 p.m. in Santa Fe. 'We put 12 runs up on the board and anytime you can do that against a team of Baker's caliber, you're doing something right," Gillman said. "During the game, we came up with eight coaching points that we need to work on, but for an opening game, I was very pleased with our effort. We were pretty strong all the way around, hitting and defensively. We did what we needed to do. The only thing, if I was disappointed in anything, is that we didn't close the game out. We had a chance to close the game and end it in five innings, but we made a few mistakes and kind of let them chip away at- us a little bit. That's something we stressed strongly after the game, when you have a chance to close out a team the caliber of Baker County, you have to do that. It's something we'll work on and get corrected." Indians baseball The regular season hasn't begah yet, but Fort White High already has it's first come-from-behind vic- tory of the season. The Indians trailed 5-2 against Union County High in a preseason classic on Thursday before striking for seven runs in the fourth inning to beat the Tigers, 9-6, in Fort White. The Indians used a plethora of pitchers to get through the cold weather on its opening night with Justin Kortessis picking up the win. Brandon Sharpe started the game and gave up one unearned run during three innings of work. Kortessis entered the game and got the win for his two innings before giving way to George Demko tq close out the game. "I had our guys on a pitch count PREP continued on 2B A5w l wo 4 Nobm. - * ~- - * a ~ - dew. .