Wahoos Win Over Braves
May 19, 2015
It took Little Heroes Night to help the Pensacola Blue Wahoos stop a two-game skid to the Mississippi Braves Monday.
Seth “Superman” Mejias-Brean (running faster than a speeding bullet, of course) scored the winning run, 4-3, for Pensacola when Juan “Superman” Silva doubled to left field just inside the chalk in the sixth inning in front of 3,604 fans at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium.
Superman was, in fact, the top super hero pick of the Blue Wahoos players and Pensacola Manager Pat Kelly on the promotion at the ballpark Monday. Each player chose their top characters.
Mejias-Brean a three-sport star in high school in Tucson, Ariz., showed off his speed Monday. In the sixth, he reached first on an infield single to third and then ended up stealing second base on a hit-and-run. It was his second steal of the night after stealing just one base in his previous 100 games at Pensacola.
Kelly said Mejias-Brean has deceptive speed and called him one of the Blue Wahoos top base runners.
“He gets those size 16’s going and covers some ground,” Kelly said. “He’s a much better athlete than people give him credit for.”
Mejias-Brean was in a 3-36 slump hitting .083 before going 8-25 or .320 in his last seven games. After going 2-4 on two singles, he’s reached base in his last eight games. He laughed off his two stolen bases Monday.
“I’ve always had the green light to go,” he said. “I don’t show off (my speed) too often but it’s there.”
The “Supermans” bailed out Robert “The Hulk” Stephenson, who started the game for Pensacola and got his second win in a row. He left after six innings, having given up three earned runs on a home run blast by Kevin Ahrens in the third inning. Stephenson gave up six hits, two walks and struck out six.
Stephenson liked his Blue Wahoos graphic as “The Hulk,” except for his mustache. He’s shaved it off but was sporting it earlier in the season when team pictures were taken. Stephenson, the Cincinnati Reds top prospect the past two seasons and a 27th pick in the first round in 2011, said he’s come to rely on his non-Hulk like changeup, instead of his mid-90s fastball. He struck out four Mississippi batters with his changeup on Monday.
“I had that just one bad pitch,” Stephenson said. “Just being able to throw the fastball down in the zone and then show the change up after allows me to get some swings on it. I think our pitching has been outstanding.”
Pensacola got on the scoreboard first when Marquez Smith lined a grounder off of Mississippi pitcher Jake Brigham’s right leg. Second baseman Ryan Wright scored to put Pensacola ahead, 1-0, for the first time in three games against Mississippi. Meanwhile, Brigham walked off the field and was relieved by Mark Lamm.
The Blue Wahoos have won eight of their last 11 games, scoring five runs in half of those games, while throwing two shutouts and allowing just one run four times. Pensacola moved out of last place in the Southern League South Division at 16-22, one game ahead of the Jacksonville Suns.
Mississippi Downs The Wahoos In Second Straight Game
May 18, 2015
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos love the grass and spectacular waterfront view at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium as much as the fans.
But after a second heartbreaking loss to the Mississippi Braves, 3-2, in 10 innings they are now 6-12 at home and 9-10 on the road.
Pensacola came through in the ninth inning with two runs to tie the game up with Mississippi at 2-2 and send it into extra innings Sunday in front of the 112th sellout crowd of 5,038 fans in 219 games since the team opened its gates in April 2012.
The night before on Saturday, Pensacola loaded the bases in its final at-bat with no outs but couldn’t get a run across and lost that game, 1-0.
“Obviously, it’s a little tough to lose like we have the past couple of games,” said Adleman, the Blue Wahoos starter who posted 17 straight scoreless innings dating back to his relief appearance May 1. “A loss is a loss. Both of them were pretty tough.”
Adleman’s scoreless streak ended when third baseman Rio Ruiz doubled in right fielder Chris O’Dowd for a 1-0 Mississippi lead in the fifth inning. It was only the second run that Adleman has given up in May. He threw seven innings, allowing four hits and two walks and striking out five.
Still, Pensacola had a chance to win after tying the game, 2-2, in the ninth inning when catcher Kyle Skipworth doubled and scored on center fielder Juan Silva’s hopper that went down the right field line bouncing off Mississippi first baseman Seth Loman’s glove to make the score, 2-1. Marquez Smith then got all of a fly ball to center that scored pinch runner Beau Amaral from third to knot it, 2-2.
Mississippi came right back in the 10th inning, though, when center fielder Mallex Smith singled in second baseman Eric Garcia to put the Braves back on top, 3-2.
Braves reliever Tyler Jones came on in relief in the 10th and stuck out Ryan Wright, Jesse Winker and Kyle Waldrop—the heart of the Blue Wahoos lineup—for his second save of the season and Mississippi’s second straight win of the five-game series. Wright, Winker and Waldrop were a combined 1-15 for five Ks and two ground outs into double plays.
Pensacola Manager Pat Kelly said the Blue Wahoos have just run into two of Mississippi’s best pitchers—Tyrell Jenkins, the Braves No. 12 prospect, Sunday and Jason Hursh, the No. 6 prospect in the organization on Saturday.
Kelly expects the Pensacola offense to pick up again where it left off when the Blue Wahoos won seven of eight games before its recent homestand.
“We have to tip our cap to their pitching,” Kelly said. “They really pitched our left-handers tough. We face two pretty good pitchers.”
Mississippi Ends The Blue Wahoos’ Win Streak
May 17, 2015
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos looked good in its special jerseys by marine artist Guy Harvey with the big game fish seemingly swimming off of the front.
When they loaded the bases with none out on three straight singles in the bottom of the ninth inning, they felt even better. With a four-game win streak on the line, the fans and players just knew, just knew the team would win a fifth in the row.
Up to the plate came Pensacola catcher Kyle Skipworth, who reached base in his first three plate appearances. However, after fouling four straight pitches off with two strikes, Skipworth struck out on the ninth pitch from Mississippi Braves reliever Ryan Kelly.
A pop out to shortstop and strike out later and Mississippi stole a, 1-0, victory from the jaws of the Blue Wahoos in front of a sellout crowd of 5,038 at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. The Braves lone run came in the first inning on a homer—his first of the season—that was crushed by 6-4, 230-pound right fielder David Rohm that appeared to fly about four feet over a leaping Jesse Winker’s glove at the wall.
Pensacola starter Keyvius Sampson, who picked up the loss (1-2), threw six innings, gave up three hits, walked three and struck out five. He lowered his ERA to 2.05.
No one was rooting harder than Sampson in the locker room, where he was icing his arm, for Pensacola to score in the ninth.
“You never want one pitch to decide the game,” Sampson said afterward. “I was inside rooting for them. Our team could have easily gave in and gone 1-2-3 and called it a day but they kept fighting.”
The Braves looked like they would score again in the fourth inning but catcher Matt Kennelly was gunned down by a perfect throw at the plate by Blue Wahoos center fielder Beau Amaral.
Mississippi pitcher Jason Hursh, the Braves No. 6 prospect, matched Sampson inning for inning. After allowing five or more runs in four of his last five outings, Hursh threw six scoreless innings against Pensacola, giving up three hits, one walk and striking out four.
Four In A Row: Pensacola Blue Wahoos Beat Jacksonsville
May 16, 2015
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos beat the Jacksonville Suns for the fourth straight game and now have won seven of its last eight games—the club’s best streak in two seasons since Aug. 18-24, 2013.
You could call it the Barry Larkin Effect.
The Blue Wahoos have won its last two series since the Hall of Fame shortstop and new minor league roving infield instructor for the Cincinnati Reds coached the team during its last series May 5-9 against the Tennessee Smokies.
The, 3-1, Pensacola victory at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville also lifted the Blue Wahoos out of last place into fourth in the Southern League South Division. Pensacola is 15-20, while Jacksonville dropped to last at 14-20.
Blue Wahoos Manager Pat Kelly and many of the Blue Wahoos credited Larkin for getting them out of their early season slump, when they fell 11 games below .500.
Right fielder Kyle Waldrop, who spoke to Larkin about hitting mechanics, extended his hitting streak to eight games in the eighth inning with an RBI single that drove in left fielder Jesse Winker to put Pensacola out front, 1-0. Third baseman, Seth Mejias-Brean then doubled to clear the bases, plating both first baseman Marquez Smith and Waldrop.
Waldrop is on fire. In the Jacksonville series, he had two homers and 10 RBIs, along with two triples and a double. During his hitting streak, he is batting .419 with 13 hits in 31 at-bats. He leads the team with a .298 batting average, five home runs and 24 RBIs this season.
Both starting pitchers matched each other inning for inning. Blue Wahoos starter Wandy Peralta threw six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and two walks, and striking out six. He threw 90 pitches, including 59 for strikes.
Meanwhile, Jacksonville’s Kendry Flores went seven scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 2.06.
Tate’s Worley Inks With Jeff Davis
May 15, 2015
Tate High School senior Hunter Worley signed Thursday to play baseball for Jefferson Davis Community College in Brewton, AL. The senior third baseman had a productive year at the bat hitting .388 with 22 RBI’s, and a .517 OBP. Photo courtesy Tate baseball for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Take Third Straight From Jacksonville
May 15, 2015
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos won its third straight game against the Jacksonville Suns, 5-2, Thursday.
The Blue Wahoos got 10 hits to support starter Daniel Wright with his first win of the year (1-4), as he allowed nine hits, two runs, one earned, two walks and five strikeouts.
Wright allowed two runs to Jacksonville in the first inning after giving up four in the first to Tennessee Smokies in his last start. Both times Pensacola came back to win those games.
Jacksonville center fielder Kenny Wilson and third baseman Zach Cox scored for Jacksonville in the first.
Pensacola then got a homer by Kyle Waldrop in the second inning, his team-leading fifth of the season to cut the lead, 2-1. Center fielder Beau Amaral tied the game at, 2-2, when he singled in shortstop Zach Vincej.
The Blue Wahoos’ game-winning run came in the sixth inning when Seth Mejias-Brean singled to left field to score first baseman Marquez Smith for a 3-2 lead. Pensacola scored two more insurance runs in the seventh inning when Daniel Wright drove in Vincej and then Wright scored on a fielding error on a Smith grounder to third base.
Waldrop’s homer was his second in two games and extended his hitting streak to seven games. He’s batting .444 in those games with 12 hits in 27 at-bats. He leads the team with a .299 batting average this year.
Rules Outlined For Return Of Bear Hunting
May 14, 2015
Rules for the state’s first bear hunt in more than 20 years have been published as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is expected next month to give final approval to the hunt.
The posting of the rules came as the Humane Society has reached out to Gov. Rick Scott to halt the pending hunt because the commission has yet to determine how many bears are in Florida.
“This is very premature,” said Kate MacFall, the Humane Society’s Florida director. “They haven’t even finished the count. They don’t even know about the bear population.”
The society has not heard back from Scott.
The proposed rules were published Tuesday in the Florida Administrative Register and outline how the hunt is expected to occur in four regions of the state starting Oct. 24.
The hunt is considered one way to control the bear population as Florida has seen a growing number of bear and human conflicts.
The wildlife commission on April 15 gave tentative approval to the hunt and is expected to take a final vote the week of June 22 in Sarasota.
The proposed rules were issued after two black bears, both estimated to weigh more than 400 pounds, were killed this month in separate collisions with cars outside Micanopy and Hawthorne, both in Alachua County.
Opponents of the proposed hunt have argued the state should consider relocating problem bears and that people need to be held more responsible for leaving out unsecured food and trash that attracts bears.
“It’s a trash problem,” MacFall said. “The bears are attracted to trash, and that is where the focus should be, large-scale trash management.”
State lawmakers this spring approved a bill (HB 7021) that would in part increase penalties for people charged a fourth time with feeding bears and alligators not in captivity. The charge would be a third-degree felony. Currently, a fourth offense of illegally feeding wildlife within a 10-year period is a first-degree misdemeanor.
The bill has yet to be sent to Scott.
The hunt, meanwhile, is expected to last from two to six days, depending on when quotas are reached in the different regions — the eastern Panhandle, Northeast Florida, east-central Florida and South Florida.
Diane Eggeman, director of the commission’s Division of Hunting and Game Management, said the agency expects to have hunt quota numbers ready for the commission to approve in September.
“We should have the new estimates from the South and Central bear management units sometime this summer,” Eggeman said. “There is a chance that they’ll be ready by the June meeting, but that is unlikely.”
The hunt will target less than 20 percent of the population in the four bear-management areas.
Black bears were placed on the state’s threatened list in 1974, when there were between 300 and 500 across Florida. At the time, hunting black bear was limited to three counties. In 1994, the hunting season was closed statewide.
In moving forward with the plans for the hunt, the state commission has used 2002 numbers, which estimate there are a combined 2,500 black bears in the four regions.
Under the proposed rules, the cost of the hunt would be $100 for Floridians and $300 for non-Floridians. There had been talk by commissioners of lowering the fee for Florida residents to $50, as it is unknown how many will pay to join the hunt.
Each hunter would be limited to one bear, and the kill would have to be registered and tagged within 12 hours.
Also, hunters would be prohibited from killing bears within 100 yards of active game-feeding stations.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Wahoos Beat Suns 5-1
May 14, 2015
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos (13-20) took advantage of an early lead to put away the Jacksonville Suns (14-18) by a score of 5-1. The victory gives the Wahoos their second consecutive victory and a leg up in the series against Jacksonville, which they now lead 2-1.
Wahoos starter Robert Stephenson (1-4) earned his first victory of the season, throwing 5.0 innings and allowing one unearned run, two hits and four walks. Layne Somsen and Zack Weiss closed out the game with 4.0 scoreless innings. Suns starter Trevor Williams (0-5) is still looking for his first win, as he pitched 4.0 innings and gave up five runs (all earned). Jacksonville’s relievers (Brian Ellington, Greg Nappo and Craig Stem), however, fared much better as they combined to pitch 5.0 perfect innings after Williams’ exit.
The Wahoos were led at the plate by Kyle Waldrop and Ryan Wright. Waldrop had an RBI single and a two-run homer to give him three RBIs on the day, and Wright had a pair of doubles and scored a run.
The Wahoos got off to a hot start as Ryan Wright doubled with one out in the top of the first inning and eventually scored on a Kyle Waldrop single to left. After another single from Seth Mejias-Brean, Kyle Skipworth hit a double to the wall in right-center to score both base runners.
The onslaught continued in the third, beginning with another double from Wright. Waldrop would later hit his fourth home run of the year to left field, giving the Wahoos a commanding 5-0 lead.
The Suns got a run back in the bottom half as outfielder Kenny Wilson walked, advanced to second on a pickoff error, and advanced home on a pair of groundouts.
Pensacola and Jacksonville pitching went on to throw six consecutive scoreless innings to close out the ballgame. In the seventh, a Chadd Krist ground-rule double and an infield single by Wilson allowed the Suns to threaten with runners at the corners, but Layne Somsen was able to get out of the inning unscathed with the Wahoos still leading 5-1. Somsen allowed a pair of runners to reach the corners again in the eighth but, once again, came up big to not allow any damage.
Northview Chiefs Fall In State 1A Semi-Final (With Photo Gallery)
May 14, 2015
Blountstown defeated the Northview Chiefs Wednesday afternoon 7-4 in the Class 1A state semifinal game at Jet Blue Park in Fort Myers. The loss spelled the end for the Chiefs first ever trip to the state final four in school history.
The Chiefs took an early 1-0 lead in the first with a monster home run from junior Thomas Moore over the Green Monster, the popular nickname of high left field wall at Jet Blue Park, the spring training ground of the Boston Red Sox. The wall is just over 37 feet high and is about 315 feet from home plate.
In the bottom of the second, the sun was shining as the Chiefs were still up 1-0, but nearby lightning led to a 30 minute game delay.
The Tigers came back in the top of the third with an RBI single and a three-run double for a 4-1 lead. In the bottom of the third, Moore slammed a two-run single off the Green Monster to cut Northview’s deficit to 4-3.
In the fourth, a throwing error led to two Blountstown runs, putting Northview down 6-3 headed into the fifth. Chasen Freeman relieved Brett Weeks on the mound in the fifth and allowed only an infield single.
In the bottom of the fifth, Moore hit over the Green Monster again, but it was a foul. If not, it would have been a three-run homer. The Chiefs added one on a sacrifice fly from Aarron McDonald, and the Chiefs were down 6-4 headed into the sixth.
An RBI hit Blountstown up 7-4 in the sixth. The inning’s highlight for the Chiefs was when Chasen Freeman made a barehanded catch to make it three outs for the Tigers.
The seventh was scoreless, as Blountstown won 7-4.
For a NorthEscambia.com photo gallery, click here.
Northview hitters were: Quentin Sampson 2-3; Chasen Freeman 1-4; Thomas Moore 3-4, 3 RBI, HR; and Brett Weeks 2-3.
The Chiefs entered their season with a school record best of 19-3, a district title, a regional title, and the Chiefs first-ever appearance in the state semi-finals.
Pictured top: Thomas Moore slammed a homer over the Green Monster at Jet Blue Park in Fort Myers, the spring training grounds of the Boston Red Sox, during Wednesday afternoons 1A state semi final game. Pictured inset: Brett Weeks on the mound for the Chiefs. Pictured below: Chasen Freeman pitched relief for Northview. Pictured bottom. Northview fans made the 600 mile road trip to Fort Myers to the support their Chiefs on their historic run. NorthEscambia.com photos by Ramona Preston, click to enlarge.
More photos later on NorthEscambia.com.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Former Ernest Ward High Football Coach Killed In Wreck
May 14, 2015
A former Ernest Ward High School football coach was killed in a single vehicle crash Tuesday night on I-10 in Okaloosa County.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, 56-year old Arthur McMillion of Milton was traveling eastbound on I-10 when he lost control of his 1999 Chevrolet Silverado about 9:24 p.m. Tuesday. The vehicle left the roadway and overturned, ejecting McMillion. He was pronounced deceased at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt.
McMillion was a teacher and football coach at the former Ernest Ward High School in Walnut Hill from 1984 to 1992. He served Ernest Ward as head football coach and athletic director for four seasons, from 1989-1992. He left Ernest Ward to become head football coach at Milton High School, and was currently the dean at Hobbs Middle School in Milton. His educational career spanned over 30 years, with over 20 of those years in Santa Rosa County.