After two rounds of the high school state baseball playoffs, five area teams are left standing.
Bishop Snyder, Trinity Christian and St. Johns Country Day joined Clay and Creekside in the regional finals with wins on Saturday night.
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Snyder had the night’s biggest win, going on the road to survive a wild 10-inning game and win 6-5 over No. 1 seed and nationally ranked Pensacola Catholic (27-2). The Crusaders had been the state’s No. 1 team until last week when they dropped to second. They are ranked 11th in the country by MaxPreps, making Snyder’s win arguably the biggest upset in the area this year.
The Cardinals used five pitchers after starter Cody Boshell’s six scoreless innings and 11 Ks of one-hit ball. He left due to the pitch count with a 2-0 lead before the Crusaders pushed two across in the bottom of the seventh to force extras. The Cardinals answered with three in the eighth and Pensacola Catholic countered to send the game even longer.
Aidan King, Tristan Silver and Grant Sheppard had two hits apiece for Snyder. Silver had the game-winning RBI in the 10th to stretch the Cardinals’ best season in program history out even longer. King whiffed 20 in a win over Providence on Wednesday, the first playoff win for the school. Next up is a Tuesday collision with Trinity Christian.
Trinity got its second homer in as many games from sophomore slugger Brady Harris and two more RBI from Gage Petrutz to beat rival Bolles 6-4 in Region 1-3A. The Conquerors (23-6) scored five runs in the first two innings and had Ethan Wheeler cool Bolles’ bats with 5.2 innings of solid relief.
In Region 1-5A, Bishop Kenny fell behind early and never caught back up in a 5-2 loss to South Walton. Colin Ulrich had two hits for the Crusaders, who played for a state championship last season.
In 1-2A, St. Johns Country Day stayed on track for the final four, cooling off red-hot University Christian 8-3.
James Gilson had two hits and Gabriel Gilliand homered for the Spartans, who broke a 3-all tie with a three-run fourth inning to pull away. UC was the area’s hottest team, winners of 10 straight before Saturday. Bryson Harnage and Joseph Ramsey homered for the Christians. St. Johns will host North Florida Christian in the regional finals. NFC beat St. Joseph 2-0, despite a 10 K game from Sean Miskowiec and a pair of hits from Aiden Torrez.
Friday’s results
Regional semifinals
Region 1-7A
(2) Creekside 6, (3) Lake Mary 4
Region 1-5A
(3) Clay 12, (7) Beachside 0
Saturday’s results
Regional semifinals
Region 1-4A
(3) South Walton 5, (2) Bishop Kenny 2
Region 1-3A
(4) Bishop Snyder 6, (1) Pensacola Catholic 5 (10 innings)
(2) Trinity Christian 6, (3) Bolles 4
Region 1-2A
(1) St. Johns Country Day 8, (4) University Christian 3
(2) Tallahassee North Florida Christian 2, (3) St. Joseph 0
Regional final
Region 3-1A
(1) Lafayatte 4, (2) Union County 0
Monday’s games
Regional finals
Region 1-7A
(2) Creekside (19-6) at (1) Timber Creek (23-6)
Region 1-5A
(3) Clay (18-9) at (1) Lincoln (17-11)
Region 1-3A
(4) Bishop Snyder (20-8) at (2) Trinity Christian (23-6)
Region 1-2A
(2) North Florida Christian (19-6-2) at (1) St. Johns Country Day (22-6)