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Braves avoid distraction, capture softball sectional
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FORT MYERS Less than an inning into Wednesday night’s Section 6 championship game at the Sam Fleishman Complex, Naples Braves coach Robert Iamurri marched to the pitcher’s circle bent on fixing the problem at hand.
WEBIFIED
The visit wasn’t to remove Jaclyn Traina, who would ultimately be the pitcher of record. The issue, rather, was what lay at the player’s lead foot: a slab of rubber 35 feet from home plate, the one used by teams in a younger age group.
Iamurri, who had grabbed a shovel from the far end of the visitors dugout, simply wedged the distraction out of the ground, on a mission to remedy a situation that should have been handled hours before the game began.
“It was distracting me,” Traina said. “It needed to be moved.”
Iamurri took care of one obstacle. His team took care of the other, cruising by Greater Fort Myers, 9-2, to win the 13-and-14 division sectional title, earning a trip to the state Little League tournament in Eau Gallie.
They made it look easy. The Braves jumped ahead by seven runs through two innings, leaving it to seem that a mercy-rule win was on the way. That didn’t happen, but Greater Fort Myers was handcuffed throughout by Braves pitching.
It took the work of two. Traina started and finished, with Cody Wipperman throwing three innings in between. Together they held Greater Fort Myers to three hits.
The quick start, though, was the story of the game. Naples sent 18 batters to the plate in the first two innings alone, picking up right where it left off after a pair of blowout victories over San Carlos in Saturday’s district tournament.
“We’re good about taking advantage of situations,” Iamurri said. “You could say it’s the mark of our team.”
A veteran team, at that. These Braves have been playing together for years — eight of the players were on the Queens outfit that, in 2003, advanced to the Little League World Series in Portland, Ore. — with most of the girls representing the Braves in last year’s 13-and-14 state tournament.
The experience showed in Wednesday’s rout. Nine of the 11 players who saw action registered a base hit, surviving just fine even though three times Naples was called for runner interference. So the Braves have something to work on.
Little else was a problem, though, with Naples pounding out 13 hits. Ryan Iamurri, the coach’s daughter, was 3-for-4 with a double and Wipperman went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Traina did her part with the bat, too, driving in two runs in the second with a single to center field.
Maybe it was anticipation, though, that revved the Braves up. The sectional championship had been rescheduled twice because of rain, so Naples poured it on when the big game finally arrived.
Greater Fort Myers, really, had just one good opportunity for a breakthrough. It came after the first three batters reached in the fourth, but Wipperman retired the next three in order. Only one run scored, with two left on.

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