Scores, Videos and Recaps From Friday Night's Action
Class 6A Regional Final
Jesuit 9, Belleview 4
In front of a jam-packed crowd at Hyer Field on Friday night, the Jesuit Tigers used a five-run first to catapult themselves to a 9-4 victory over the visiting Belleview Rattlers in the Class 6A Regional Final.
McGuire Weaver drove home Joel Brewer with an RBI triple in the opening frame, followed by an RBI single by Jake Jones to kick off the scoring for the Tigers. Back-to-back RBI doubles by Alex Mocny and Mitchell Thrower pushed the lead to 5-0 and Jesuit never looked back.
As Jack Anderson was putting up zeroes on the mound, the home team just kept piling on the runs.
Brewer (2 for 3 with a walk and three runs scored) smoked a triple to lead off the 2nd and came home to score on an errant throw into third base. In the 3rd, he doubled and came home to score on an RBI single by Weaver (2 for 4 with two RBI).
With the Tigers up 8-0 in the 5th, the Rattlers showed a lot of fight to cut the lead in half and chase Anderson from the game. The Jesuit ace gave up a pair of runs before Jeff Hakanson came on and gave up a couple as well. But as usual, Hakanson settled in and shut down Belleview for the final two innings to secure the Tigers victory.
Duncan Hunter added an RBI single in the 2nd and Charles Ethan Clark sped home and scored on a wild pitch in the 5th to give Jesuit an important insurance run. Thomas Bencivenga was 2 for 2 with a walk and a hit by pitch.
Jesuit moves on to play Dunedin at 1 p.m. next Thursday in the Class 6A state semifinals at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.
Class 8A Regional Final
Tallahassee Lincoln 2, Wharton 0
An impressive post-season run by Wharton came to a close as the Wildcats could find no answer for Tallahassee Lincoln starting pitcher Austin Pollock, as the Florida State commit tossed a complete-game, two-hit shutout to give the Trojans a 2-0 Class 8A region final win.
FOR MORE on this game and ALL things prep sports, go check out www.813preps.com and my buddy Jarrett Guthrie. Been a great year covering baseball with you my man, one more week to go!!