November 8th-17th

COACH BEETS CLASSIC
Florida Prospect Baseball is hosting a charity 12 team pool play tournament In honor of Larry Beets for all the great things he has done for Pasco County Baseball.
For more information please contact HC Lyndon Coleman (Contact@floridaprospectbaseball.com)
Jacob Hancock
Florida Prospect and the Beets Classic is honored to donate a portion of the proceeds of this tournament to help support Jacob Hancock (Fivay High School) with his medical bills after being shot in the stomach.
“Jacob Hancock is a 3 year varsity starter at Fivay High School and a participant of the Beets Classic Last year. Jake has always been a strong but silent leader on the team . While being a third basemen his entire high school career he made the switch to catcher . He did this not because he chose to . Instead he did it because we had no returning catcher. When he was asked , he said absolutely without hesitation. He said whatever is best for the team . This a just a small example of the kind of teammate and person Jake is .” (Coach Doug Young)
“After Jake’s first surgery , the first thing he asked was if anyone else was hit or hurt . When his mother replied no , he gave a little smile and went to sleep. This is just the kind of guy Jake is . He always is looking out for others and putting their needs ahead of his own .As coaches we always say he’s a great kid , great teammate when we speak of our guys . I can tell you in all my years I’ve never met a more selfless , unassuming, hard working young man than Jake .” ( Coach Doug Young)
Jake is expected to make a full recovery.


ON THURSDAY NOVEMBER 17TH AT 6:30 BEFORE THE COACH BEETS CLASSIC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME AT BEETS FIELD WE ARE RECOGNIZING THE 20 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE 2002 RIDGEWOOD HIGH BASEBALL TEAM THAT WAS THE 4-A STATE RUNNER UP. THEY WERE THE LAST TEAM TO MAKE IT TO THE STATE FINALS FROM PASCO COUNTY.
RIDGEWOOD WAS ON THE ROAD FOR THE ENTIRE PLAYOFF RUN DEFEATING BROOKSVILLE CENTRAL, DAYTONA SEABREEZE, OCALA FOREST AND UNDEFEATED
34-0 DUNEDIN IN THE SEMI-FINALS IN FRONT OF 8,000 FANS AT LEGENDS FIELD IN TAMPA BEFORE LOSING TO JACKSONVILLE BISHOP KENNY IN THE FINALS. THE RAMS FINISHED WITH A 27-8 RECORD AND A NUMBER 9 RANKING IN THE FINAL NATIONAL BASEBALL POLE.
THE TEAM CONSISTED OF 15 PLAYERS (2 SENIORS; 6 JUNIORS; 6 SOPHOMORES; 1 FRESHMAN AND AN OUTSTANDING MANAGER. FOUR COACHES; RANDY KOENIGSFELD, MIKE YUSKO, HOWARD CHITTUM AND LARRY BEETS LED THE WAY.
RONNY LOWE, RICHIE HITTEL AND MONTE WERNER WERE SELECTED TO THE 4-A ALL STATE SECOND TEAM WITH RONNY LOWE PARTICIPATING IN THE PRESTIGIOUS STATE ALL STAR GAME IN SEBRING FLORIDA.
IT WAS A GREAT RUN AND THE TEAM EMBESSISHED OUR MOTTO OF HTTSR (HIT THE TOP STEP RUNNING) AND “THE HUNGRY DOG GETS THE BONE” THANK YOU FROM LARRY BEETS

Who is Coach Beets?
This tournament is being played to recognize a Pasco County coaching legend. Following his playing career at Austin Peay State University, where he captained his team to an Ohio Valley Conference Championship, Coach and his wife Donna moved to Florida to pursue their careers in education. Here, they both taught and raised their daughter, Bethany. For 47 years, he gave his all to educate and mentor all the young people in his classroom and on the field.
His first head coaching job was at Gulf High (79-81) where he set a school record for victories. He did the same at Hudson HS (82-83) at a school that had never had a winning season. In 1984, he led the inaugural program at Ridgewood HS. That season, with just grades 8-10, the Rams won an astonishing 10 games. From there, Ridgewood became a mainstay in the playoffs. During his 27 years at the helm of the Rams, coach Beets teams won 37 championships. In 2002, the Rams shocked the baseball world knocking off the country’s number one ranked team; undefeated Dunedin, in the state semifinal game. The Rams lost the following day to Bishop Kenney and ended the season ranked #9 in the country. He won 494 games at Ridgewood and 565 total as a high school head coach in Pasco County. Coach Beets retired in 2011 and spent the next 10 seasons at PHSC as an assistant and made the Junior College World Series on two different occasions.
In 2007, Ridgewood’s field was named in his honor. As a former PA announcer use to say at home games, “this is the house that Beets built”. This is no understatement! He took a field that had the bare necessities and turned it into a cathedral of baseball. The number of improvements to the facility are just too long to list. However, block by block, volunteers of coaches, players, and friends enclosed the wall that surrounds Beets Field. In addition, the same was done with the press box. It was an event to watch and play at Beets Field!
What a legacy he has forged in our community! All the life lessons that players and assistant coaches lean on in their day to day lives with his mission of Hit the Top Step Running (HTTSR). The pedestal that his former players and coaches put him on is perhaps the highest honor bestowed to a coach. Forget the victories and the field, it is the relationships he created through his many years of service to those who crossed his path. He always said, “you have to give up being good to be great”. Coach, you are the greatest!

Withlacoochee River Electric Co-Op Park
PHSC Tournament Series will be held at the Withlacoochee River Electric Co-Op Park. PHSC has recently added a new turf baseball infield and a LED Lights to make it one of the top facilities in the State of Florida and is the home of the Pasco-Hernando State College Bobcats.

BEETS FIELD
· Originally designed to field a Junior High School team.
· Transitioned from Bahia grass to Bermuda grass
· Early teams had to insert individual sprinkler heads before automatic system was installed.
· Press box was built by volunteers
· Hill was removed in left field
· Fence was removed and block by block the current wall that encloses field was constructed by volunteers.
· Concrete halo with royal blue carpet was built around home plate
· Warning track was installed with crushed brick encircling the stadium.
· New home/visitor bullpens with concrete, carpeted catching areas with constructed down both foul lines.
· Giant practice hitting area and expanded cages
· Beautiful signs in outfield recognizing former players drafted into professional baseball.
· Awesome large scoreboard (that was tragically removed by a former county AD and replaced w/ the current generic board)
· Too many other things to mention!
· ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING THAT IS GREAT ABOUT THIS FIELD AND SURROUNDING INFRASTRUCURE WAS UNDER THE DIRECTION OF COACH BEETS!
EVENT DETAILS
Host Site Details
Land O Lakes High School – 20325 Gator Lane Land O Lakes, FL 34638
$5 Admission 10 and under free. NO CONCESSIONS.
Pasco-Hernando State College– 10230 Ridge Rd. New Port Richey, FL 34564
$5 Admission 10 and under Free
Concessions will be open for all games
Hot Food– – Breaded Chicken Sandwich, Ball Park Frank Hot Dogs, Jimmy Deans Breakfast Sandwich
Sweets – Assorted Candy- Cotton Candy- Blow Pops- Ice Pops
Drinks– Gatorade- Pepsi Products- Water- Sweet Tea
Other – Salted Peanuts and chips
Payment– We accept cash-venmo-cashapp- No Credit cards
Turf Field– Metal Spikes are allowed- NO SUNFLOWER SEEDS OR GUM ON TURF.
Wendell Krinn Technical High School (BEETS FIELD)- 7650 Orchid Lake Rd, New Port Richey, FL 34653
$5 Admission 10 and under free- Full Service Concessions will be open
Park in the main parking lot and walk through the football stadium to get to baseball field. There is no parking behind home plate on the hill.
TOURNAMENT RULES
7 innings or 2hr 10min time limit pool play . Semi Final and Championship game are 7 Full innings.
High School baseball rules will be enforced. official lineups will be turned in at plate meeting to umpires. Extra hitters are allowed. If you start with a 12 man line up, you have to finish game with a 12 man lineup. No dropping down to a 9 man lineup.
Tie equals half a win , half a loss
One inning of Texas tiebreaker . Runner on second last batted out previous inning , zero outs
Mercy rules 15 after 3, 12 after 4 , 10 after 5
Seeding and tie breaker rules pool play
- Record
2. Head To Head
3. Runs against
4. Runs Scored.
TEAMS
Pool A
FIVAY
MITCHELL
LAND O’ LAKES
Springstead
EAST LAKE
ACADEMY AT THE LAKES
Pool B
SEMINOLE
WIREGRASS
HERNANDO
STEINBRENNER
PLANT
BISHOP McLAUGHLIN
SCHEDULE/SCORES
LAST UPDATED
DATE | TIME | LOCATION | HOME | AWAY | SCORE |
11/8/22 | 5:00pm | WREC Park | Fivay | Mitchell | Mitchell 11 Fivay 6 |
11/8/22 | 7:30pm | WREC Park | Bishop | Plant | Plant 9 Bishop 0 |
11/8/22 | 5:00pm | Beets Field | ATTL | East Lake | East Lake 12 ATTL 2 |
11/8/22 | 7:30pm | Beets Field | Hernando | Steinbrenner | Steinbrenner 6 Hernando 7 |
11/8/22 | 5:00pm | Land O Lakes H.S. | Seminole | Wiregrass | Wiregrass 5 Seminole 3 |
11/8/22 | 7:30pm | Land O Lakes H.S. | Land O Lakes | Springstead | LOL 13 Springstead 1 |
11/12/22 | 10:00am | WREC Park | Hernando | Plant | Plant 3 Hernando 0 |
11/12/22 | 12:30pm | WREC Park | Springstead | East Lake | East Lake 7 Springstead 2 |
11/12/22 | 3:00pm | WREC Park | Bishop | Seminole | Seminole 1 Bishop 0 |
11/12/22 | 10:00am | Beets Field | Land O Lakes | Mitchell | Mitchell 2 LOL 1 |
11/12/22 | 12:30pm | Beets Field | ATTL | Fivay | Fivay 6 ATTL 6 |
11/12/22 | 3:00pm | Beets Field | Steinbrenner | Wiregrass | Stienbrenner 3 Wiregrass 2 |
11/13/22 | 10:00am | WREC Park | Fivay | East Lake | East Lake 6 Fivay 1 |
11/13/22 | 12:30pm | WREC Park | Plant | Seminole | Plant 3 Seminole 1 |
11/13/22 | 3:00pm | WREC Park | Wiregrass | Hernando | Hernando 2 Wiregrass 1 |
11/13/22 | 10:00am | Beets Field | Mitchell | Springstead | Mitchell 4 Springstead 4 |
11/13/22 | 12:30pm | Beets Field | ATTL | Land O Lakes | ATTL 6 LOL 6 |
11/13/22 | 3:00pm | Beets Field | Bishop | Steinbrenner | Stienbrenner 13 Bishop 2 |
11/15/22 | 5:00pm | WREC Park | East Lake 1 | Hernando 2 | East Lake 10 Hernando 0 |
11/15/22 | 7:30pm | WREC Park | Plant 1 | Mitchell 2 | Plant 13 Mitchell 3 |
11/17/22 | 7:00pm | Beets Field | Plant | East Lake |
POOL A
Team | Win | Loss | Tie | Runs Allowed | Runs Scored |
East Lake | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 25 |
Mitchell | 2 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 17 |
Land O Lakes | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 21 |
ATTL | 0 | 1 | 2 | 24 | 14 |
Fivay | 0 | 2 | 1 | 23 | 13 |
Springstead | 0 | 2 | 1 | 24 | 7 |
POOL B
Team | Win | Loss | Runs Allowed | Runs Scored | |
Plant | 3 | 0 | 1 | 15 | |
Hernando | 2 | 1 | 11 | 9 | |
Stienbrenner | 2 | 1 | 11 | 22 | |
Wiregrass | 1 | 2 | 8 | 8 | |
Seminole | 1 | 2 | 8 | 5 | |
Bishop | 0 | 3 | 23 | 2 |