A Monumental Rally Comes Up Short, Dedham 10s Eliminated by Quincy [VIDEO]

Jim Valvano is famous for saying, "Don't give up. Don't every give up."

And the Dedham 10s did just that Friday night against Quincy in the Cal Ripken Baseball state semifinals.

Facing elimination and a 10-0 deficit after the second inning, the 10s chipped away at the giant iceberg that stood between them and a return to the state finals.

Down 10-7 in the bottom of the sixth, Dedham strung together four singles, pushed two runs across the plate, but couldn't do any more, falling to Quincy 10-9.

"We just ran out of innings. One more inning and this game was ours," Dedham manager Andy Shumway said.

After an un-10s-like performance at the plate in their three games this week, the offense broke through in a big way against Quincy.

Needing the bats to come through down 10-3 in the fourth inning, Dedham's Alex Cherry and Ben Dean hit back-to-back doubles to make it 10-4. Michael Littmarck following with a single and a stolen base and Ben Shumway ripped an RBI single. Peter Coughlin, Billy Casey and Aidan Kelly hit infield singles to make it 10-7.

"We told them afterward is that we were proud of them and they stuck together," Shumway said.