Wahoos Move Into First Place
August 27, 2015
Cody Reed held the Mississippi Braves to one run and struck out eight in six innings of work as the Pensacola Blue Wahoos won, 3-1, Wednesday night to move into first place in the second half of South Division play in the Southern League.
Wednesday night, Reed showed the 4,201 Blue Wahoos fans at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium what he’s made of. In the battle to make the playoffs, Reed retired nine Mississippi Braves in a row at one point.
On the road, Reed has a 3-0 record and 0.41 earned-run average. At home? Reed was 0-2, lasting just 7.2 innings with an 11.74 ERA.
Pensacola improved to 33-26 in the second half and sole possession of first place, while Mississippi fell to 32-26.
Reed said he knew he lacked his usual good stuff but wasn’t about to let the Braves have a big inning. He struggled early throwing 60 pitches over the first three innings.
“It wasn’t my sharpest day but I got through six innings,” said Reed, who came to Pensacola from the Kansas City organization in a trade for the Cincinnati Reds ace Johnny Cueto. “You just got to work through it. I love having that pressure of being the guy they give the ball to.”
Pensacola manager Pat Kelly, who turns 60 Thursday, said Reed’s six innings was exactly what the Blue Wahoos needed Wednesday against Mississippi. Reed improved to 4-2 with a 3.03 ERA.
“I had more guys in turf shoes than cleats tonight,” he said. “I love (Reed’s) stuff. He has a plus fastball with a plus slider. He really competes. He was upset he gave up one run.”
Pensacola scored first in the fourth inning when left fielder Jesse Winker walked and scored on right fielder Juan Duran’s fielder choice to go up, 1-0.
The Blue Wahoos added another in the next inning when Kyle Skipworth hit a shot to right field that was dropped for an error. He scored on Winker’s ground out to the first baseman for a 2-0 Pensacola lead.
But back-to-back doubles by Mississippi’s Keven Ahrens and Rio Ruiz brought the Braves within one run at, 2-1.
Pensacola, though, added an insurance run in the eighth inning to go up, 3-1, when shortstop Alex Blandino hit a rocket to centerfield for a double and scored on a sacrifice fly by first baseman Marquez Smith.
Kelly said he’s glad to be in the hunt for a playoff spot with 11 games left in the season. The latest Pensacola has had sole possession of first place was July 22, 2012 in its first season.
“If you had told me in April or May that we would be here I would have told you that you were crazy,” Kelly said. “This is great. It’s nice being here at this point. We just gotta keep going.”
NHS To Hold Meet The Chiefs (With Bonus Cheerleader, Dance, Band Photos)
August 26, 2015
Northview High School will hold “Meet The Chiefs” Thursday at 7 p.m. Fans will have a chance to meet the football players and cheerleaders ahead of the regular season.
A meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. for parents of football players.
For cheerleader, dance, band and NJROTC photos, click here.
Pictured: The Northview band, cheerleaders, dance team and NJROTC from last Friday night. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Beat The Braves
August 26, 2015
Thanks to Tim Adleman and the Pensacola defense, the Blue Wahoos pulled back within half a game of the Southern League South Division lead behind the Mississippi Braves.
Needing just one run, Adleman threw six scoreless innings and Pensacola held on for a, 1-0, victory over front-runner Mississippi in front of 4,222 Tuesday night at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
It was Adleman’s second, 1-0, victory over Mississippi with the last coming on June 27. In the second half of the season, Adleman is 7-2 with a 1.90 ERA after playing in the Southern League All-Star game. He improved to 9-8 with a Southern League-leading 2.12 ERA.
“I told you,” Pensacola manager Pat Kelly said. “We got him one and that was plenty. He wasn’t sharp today but he just battled and battled.”
Meanwhile, Pensacola closer Zack Weiss entered the game with one out in the eighth inning and earned a franchise record 23 saves, surpassing the 22 Shane Dyer saved last season.
“You give him the ball and you know the game is over,” Kelly said. “That’s a great feeling as a manager.”
Pensacola, playing in its first playoff race in franchise history, is now 32-26 and in sole possession of second place after dropping the first two games of the five-game series to Mississippi. The Braves are 32-25 in the second half. The Mobile BayBears lost to the Biloxi Shuckers and fell to 30-27 and third place.
The Blue Wahoos went ahead, 1-0, when first baseman Ray Chang scored with the bases loaded on a walk by shortstop Alex Blandino. The run stood up with great defense from the outfielders and crucial double plays. The squad has a league leading 153 double plays this season.
In the fifth inning, Mississippi pinch hitter Emerson Landoni hit a broken bat blooper that Pensacola center fielder Phillip Ervin charged and then threw the baseball on a rope to catcher Kyle Skipworth at home plate to nail the Braves’ Sean Godfrey trying to score.
In the eighth inning, Pensacola right fielder Juan Duran slid to catch a soft liner and it popped out of his glove. But he jumped up and threw Braves center fielder Matt Lipka out trying to reach second.
In the same inning, Weiss struck out Mississippi right fielder KD Kang and Skipworth caught second baseman Levi Hyams going to second. It was a boom, boom double play.
Both Adleman and Kevin Shackleford started double plays from the mound in the second and seventh innings, respectivelly.
For Kelly it was a routine day at the ball park.
“The key to our club is playing great defense,” Kelly said. “Our pitchers fielded their positions today. Whenever you can get two outs on one pitch, that’s huge.”
Weiss said he was happy to set the Pensacola record but even happier to pitch well in a game with playoff ramifications.
“It’s a pretty special experience,” the 23-year-old said. “When you’re competing for a playoff spot, every pitch is a big pitch in a series like this. The record is cool but tonight was pretty much a must win.”
Ernest Ward Middle Opens Football Season Thursday Night
August 25, 2015
The Ernest Ward Middle School Eagles have announced their 2015 football schedule. Play begins this Thursday at 6 p.m. at Ernest Ward as the Eagles host the Jay Royals.
The complete schedule is as follows, with all games scheduled for Thursdays at 6 p.m. -
August 27 - Jay at EWMS
September 3 - EWMS at T.R. Miller
September 10 – EWMS at W.S. Neal
September 17 – T.R. Miller at EWMS
September 24 – EWMS at Jay
October 1 – Escambia County (Atmore) at EWMS
October 8 – W.S. Neal at EWMS
October 15 – EWMS at Escambia County (Atmore)
Ernest Ward has the only public middle school football program in Escambia County.
Pictured: Ernest Ward Middle at Jay last season. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Drop Second Game To Mississippi Braves
August 25, 2015
In its first playoff race in franchise history, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos have turned over sole possession of first place to the Mississippi Braves by dropping its first two games to the visiting club.
The Braves jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first and 7-0 after three innings and cruised to a 9-4 victory in front of 3,555 fans Monday at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
Highlights for the Blue Wahoos tonight included first baseman Marquez Smith’s driving a double into the right center alley in the third inning that scored two runs, pulling Pensacola within, 7-2.
In addition, Pensacola catcher Kyle Skipworth also hit homer No. 11 of the year in the eighth inning — his first since Aug. 6 — as the Blue Wahoos trailed, 9-4.
Mississippi, which took back first place in the Southern League South Division Sunday, is now 32-24. Meanwhile, Pensacola dropped to 1.5 games behind Mississippi, falling to 31-26. The Mobile BayBears also fell back 1.5 games to the Braves at 30-25, after losing in 11 innings at MGM Park.
Pensacola has 12 games left this season and play both Mississippi and the Mobile BayBears at home.
Blue Wahoos Manager Pat Kelly said that Mississippi has been hard for Pensacola to defend this season. They knocked 14 hits Monday.
“We could have 18 guys on the field and couldn’t catch the balls that they hit,” Kelly said. “It was one of those nights where they shot the ball in the hole between first and second or blooped it into right field.”
Mississippi jumped in front, 3-0, in the first inning off of Pensacola starter Sal Romano. Leadoff batter shortstop Emerson Landoni doubled to the right field corner and center fielder Mycal Jones followed with a double to the right center field gap to score him for a 1-0 lead.
Braves third baseman Rio Ruiz then clobbered a ball deep to center field that Pensacola center fielder Phillip Ervin ran back on but the ball bounced off his glove. Ruiz reached third, driving in Jones and right fielder KD Kang, who had walked to put the Braves ahead, 3-0.
Landoni led the Braves by going 3-5 with a double and two RBIs and lifting his season average to .295.
Reds top prospect Jesse Winker now has a hit in 15 of his 20 games this month. Winker is hitting .347 (25-72) in August with six homers and 12 RBIs
He raised his average in the second half to .302 (55-182) with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs. Winker’s two walks Monday also raised his on-base percentage to .403 (85-211) in the second half.
Kelly said Winker has really come on down the stretch.
“He has been our most consistent hitter the last three months of the year,” he said.
Pensacola center fielder Phillip Ervin, the Reds No. 9 prospect, also played well Monday, going 2-3 with a double and RBI and walking twice. In five games with the Blue Wahoos, he is 6-15 or batting .400, with two doubles, two homers and four RBIs.
Pensacola Falls To Mississippi
August 24, 2015
It was Princess Night at the ballpark and all the Pensacola Blue Wahoos wished for was its first dance at the ball – the playoffs that is.
In its first game in franchise history with post season implications, Pensacola didn’t get its fairytale ending Monday.
Despite Phillip Ervin slugging his second home run in two games, the Mississippi Braves held on in the opener of the five-game series for a 3-1 win in front of 4,357 fans, including several little “Frozen” princesses, at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
Mississippi took back first place in the South Division over Pensacola by a half game in the second half of the Southern League season. The Braves, who have recorded a better second-half record than first-half record the past seven seasons, are now 31-24 and Pensacola is 31-25.
Blue Wahoos manager Pat Kelly said with 14 games left this season and Pensacola playing both Mississippi and the Mobile BayBears at home, he knows the Blue Wahoos can qualify for the playoffs.
“We just have to win every series,” he said. “It’s a pretty simple formula.”
Mississippi starter Lucas Sims was coming off a 1-0 victory in which he threw 5.1 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball against the Birmingham Barons.
Throwing a steady stream of 90-plus mph fastballs against Pensacola, Sims allowed just three hits and recorded a season-high 10 strike outs against the Blue Wahoos. His only run was on Ervin’s solo blast.
The Braves’ Sims improved to 3-2 this season with a 4.19 ERA and now has allowed just two runs in his last 17.1 innings for a 1.06 earned-run average.
“Sims pitched a helluva game,” Kelly said. “He had really good stuff.”
Meanwhile, Pensacola starter Daniel Wright also gave the Blue Wahoos a strong outing, throwing seven innings and allowing three earned runs on six hits, while striking out seven Braves batters. The right-hander retired the first seven Mississippi batters he faced, striking out four, all on off-speed pitches.
“He pitched seven innings for us and allowed us to rest our bullpen a bit,” Kelly said. “That was good. He did a great job, he just had that little hiccup there in the fourth inning.”
Mississippi scored first getting three in the fourth. Braves second baseman Levi Hyams scored on a ground out and third baseman Rio Ruiz hit a two-out, two-run line drive over the left field wall to put Mississippi ahead, 3-0.
Ervin, the Cincinnati Reds No. 9 prospect according to MLB, hit two of Pensacola’s three hits off Sims. He went 2-3 with a double and solo blast to left field in the fourth inning Sunday that pulled Pensacola within, 3-1, of Mississippi.
He had four hits in a row between his third and fourth games in Double-A – two of them home runs. Ervin has 14 home runs and 66 RBIs this season counting his numbers for the High-A Daytona Tortugas.
Ervin said he’s relaxing more at the plate after going 0-5 in his first two games and 4-7 with a double, two homers and three RBIs in the last two.
“I like it right now,” Ervin said, chuckling, about Double-A pitching. “I was putting pressure on myself to get that first hit. Once I got it, I’ve been able to relax and have a little more fun.”
Wahoos Take Series Against The Lookouts
August 23, 2015
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos (31-24, 56-67) won the series against the Chattanooga Lookouts (24-29, 67-54) with a 10-6 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 5,038 at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. The Wahoos are now 0.5 ahead of the Mississippi Braves for first place. The two teams will face off against each other in a five-game series starting Sunday in Pensacola.
Pensacola starter Barrett Astin pitched 5.0 innings and allowed three runs on three hits, but he did not earn the decision. That distinction went to reliever Kevin Shackelford (2-4), who went 0.2 and did not allow a run. The save went to Kyle McMyne, his eighth of the season.
Chattanooga reliever Alex Wimmers (7-4) earned the loss, allowing the sixth and seventh runs of the game, which proved to be decisive.
Phillip Ervin, who went 2-4 with a home run and two RBIs, led Pensacola at the plate. Jesse Winker and Alex Blandino also stood out at the plate, driving in two runs apiece.
The Wahoos took the early lead on a Marquez Smith solo homer that carried over the wall in right-center field. It was Smith’s eighth deep shot of the season. He was also the 10th Wahoo to hit a home run in the month of August.
Chattanooga got on the board in the third with three runs, one of which was the result of Beau Amaral’s first error of the season.
Pensacola responded in the bottom of the third with a homer from Zach Vincej, the 11th Wahoo to hit a home run this month.
The Wahoos knotted it up at three runs apiece after Yovan Gonzalez took one deep to left in the bottom of the fifth. It was his third homer this August.
Pensacola retook the lead in the sixth with a pair of runs on three hits and two walks. One of the runs came on a single from Phillip Ervin, which was his first hit as a Wahoo.
Stephen Wickens brought Shannon Wilkerson home on an RBI double to bring the score back to 5-4 for the Lookouts. Adam Brett Walker then singled to bring one run home, but the second runner, Max Kepler, was gunned down at the plate by Ervin to keep the score tied.
Blandino put the Wahoos in good position with a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the seventh, which followed a pair of singles by Amaral and Vincej. Winker brought them both home with a single on the next at bat, making the score 7-5 in favor of the Wahoos.
The Lookouts brought it back to a one-run game in the eighth as Travis Harrison scored on a groundout. Levi Michael earned an RBI on the play.
Ervin extended the lead with a solo shot to left in the bottom of the eighth, the fourth of the night for the Wahoos. It was Ervin’s first Double-A homer of the year and 13th overall. Blandino made it 10-6 with an RBI double that scored Amaral and Vincej.
The Mississippi Braves come to town on Sunday for a five-game series
6A Washington Tops 1A Northview (With Photo Gallery)
August 22, 2015
Sometimes it’s just easier to play somebody your own size. But if you can hold you own against the big boys, it only makes you stronger.
The 1A Northview Chiefs certainly held their own against 6A Washington Friday night in a kickoff jamboree, in Bratt with Washington coming out on top 14-12.
And it won’t get any easier the next few weeks as the 1A Chiefs continue their trial by fire….they’ll face a pair of 6A teams – Crestview and Gulf Breeze.
“It’s not ideal playing much larger schools,” Northview Head Coach Sid Wheatley said. “It’s not what in a perfect scenario you would draw up. But that’s the way it fell, and as long as we can stay healthy I think it will make us better in the long run.”
Unlike the traditional kickoff Jamboree where junior varsity or backup players square off few a few quarters, Friday night’s meeting between the Chiefs and Wildcats was four quarters of full-on football.
Northview took the lead in the first quarter on a 6-yard run from Jared Aliff. And Northview held the lead at the half after a Luke Ward make a jumping catch of a 19-yard pass from quarterback Gavin Grant.
Wheatley was confident that his offense held their own during the four quarters with more possession time than the Wildcats, but NHS made a couple of key errors, including a fumble on the 2-yard line and another fumble inside the 15.
“You can’t leave points out there,” he said. “The difference could have been if we punched that touchdown in, but as it was we failed to do so.”
“For the most part, I thought we were sound. But those little mistakes, those can be fixed,” Wheatley said.
The Northview Chiefs will open the regular season at 7:00 next Friday night on the road against the 6A Crestview Bulldogs. They will sit out September 4 with an open date before hosting 6A Gulf Breeze on September 11.
For a photo gallery, click here. (Band, cheerleader and dance team photos will be published later.)
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Prep Football Scores
August 22, 2015
Here’s a roundup of prep football games from around the area Friday night:
FLORIDA
(Scores are from the varsity portion of preseason scrimmages.)
Washington 14, Northview 12
PHS 15, Tate 14
West Florida 13, Pine Forest, 7
Baker 13, Jay 6
Niceville 14, Catholic 7
Pace 19, Choctawhatchee 7
Navarre 43, Dothan 22
Gulf Breeze 24, Fort Walton 14
ALABAMA
Flomaton 42, Chickasaw 8
Andalusia 25, T.R. Miller 0
Baldwin County 35, Escambia County 22
Edgewood 33, Escambia Academy 21 (Thurs)
Milton 21 WS Neal 14 (Thurs)
Pictured: A very wet game between Jay and Baker Friday night. The Tate Aggies also experienced rain and lightning delay of about 45 minutes. Photo by Michele Gibbs for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Lookouts Top The Wahoos
August 22, 2015
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos (30-24, 55-67) fell to the Chattanooga Lookouts (24-28, 67-53) by a score of 7-2 Friday night to force a Saturday rubber match. 4,572 witnessed the game at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
Despite the loss, the Blue Wahoos gained full control of first place in the Southern League South Standings. Mobile dropped both games of a doubleheader against Jacksonville as Mississippi fell in their game to Birmingham. Mobile and Mississippi are tied for second, half a game behind Pensacola.
Wahoos starter Cody Reed (3-2) earned the loss as he allowed four runs on nine hits through 5.0 innings. D.J. Baxendale (6-4) earned the win for the Lookouts, also pitching 5.0 innings but only allowing a run on five hits.
The Wahoos’ offense was highlighted by Alex Blandino’s ground-rule double in the third inning. Blandino lifted a ball opposite-field that carried beyond the reach of Travis Harrison and bounced over the wall in right. It would be the only RBI of the night for the Wahoos.
The Lookouts jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first after Adam Brett Walker doubled down the line in left.
The Wahoos tried to respond in the bottom half after a Marquez Smith double put two runners in scoring position. A strikeout, however, brought an end to the inning.
Chattanooga pounced again in the third with a pair of runs, one of which came on a Shannon Wilkerson solo homer to left-center.
The Lookouts made it 4-0 in the fifth after Walker’s second double of the game. The inning would be Reed’s last of the night.
Pensacola got on the board in the fifth inning, as Blandino’s ground-rule double brought Ryan Wright home from second. However, the Wahoos left a pair of runners stranded in scoring position.
Levi Michael extended the lead by three runs in the sixth with a deep opposite-field shot to right field, making the score 7-1 in favor of the Lookouts.
The Wahoos put another one on the board in the bottom of the ninth as Beau Amaral scored on a wild pitch.