Northview Baseball, Softball Win At Semis, Head To Championship Games
May 1, 2024
Northview 11, Central 1
The Northview Chiefs beat Central 11-1 Tuesday night in the District 1-1A semi-finals.
Jase Portwood tossed a two hitter, striking out eight and walking one in seven innings.
Dane King went 3-4 with four RBIs, and Portwood was 1-3 with three RBIs to lead the Chiefs at the plate. Jayden White and Brady Smith each added two hits.
Northview will take on Jay at 7 p.m. Thursday in Bratt for the district championship.
Northview Lady Chiefs 16, Paxton 0
The Northview Lady Chief shut out the Paxton Bobcats 16-0 Tuesday night in the District 1-1A semi-finals.
Makayla McAnally tossed a no-hitter and recorded 10 strikeouts in four innings.
Jamison Gilman went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run. Bailey Burkette, Jamison Gilman, Riley Brooks and McAnally each had two hits. Brooks and Gilman both drove in three runs.
Northview advances to the district championship game against Jay at 7 p.m. Thursday at Central High School.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Tate Falls To Gulf Breeze 2-1 In District Semifinals
May 1, 2024
The Tate Aggies lost on an extra inning walk-off 2-1 to Gulf Breeze in the District 1-6A semi-finals at Pace.
A solo home run from senior Bray Touchstone put the Aggies on the board in the top of the first. Ketch King went 3-5, and Conner Hassell was 2-5. Touchstone and Clif Quiggins each drove in a run.
Tate’s Neal Crook surrendered five hits and two unearned runs. Zane Warrington went two innings on the hill, giving up one run and four hits, striking out none and walking three.
Tate’s season ended at 11-14.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Wahoos Get 5-3 Road Win Over The M-Braves In 10 Innings
May 1, 2024
written by Erik Bremer
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos won their second 10-inning game in a row on Tuesday night, beating the Mississippi Braves 5-3 thanks to an unconventional rally.
A pair of run-scoring balks from reliever Trey Riley (L, 0-3) in the top of the tenth allowed the Wahoos to maintain a share of first place in the South Division.
Jonathan Bermúdez was stellar in his start for Pensacola, tying a career high with 10 strikeouts over 6.0 innings of two-run ball. Justin Dean’s two-run double in the second inning gave Mississippi an early lead, but Joe Mack got Pensacola on the board in the third with an RBI single against Braves starter Luis De Avila.
The game remained 2-1 in Mississippi’s favor until the seventh, when the Blue Wahoos had runners at the corners and Mack at the plate once again. Paul McIntosh took off from first base, getting into a rundown long enough for Dalvy Rosario to score from third and tie the game 2-2.
The Braves tried the same trick in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Mack and shortstop Harrison Spohn delivered perfect throws to cut down runner Drake Baldwin at the plate on a double steal attempt and keep the game tied.
Chandler Jozwiak (W, 1-0) left the bases loaded in the ninth to force extras, and Riley’s two balks prompted an ejection as the game slipped away from the Braves in the tenth. Raffi Vizcaíno (S, 1) allowed only the placed runner to score in the bottom of the tenth as the Blue Wahoos improved to 12-10 on the season.
It’s a quick turnaround for the Blue Wahoos, who play again Wednesday morning in game two of their series against the Braves.
Molino Falcons 6U Win Northview Diamond Club Tourney
April 30, 2024
The Molino Falcons 6U won a weekend tournament in their division. The two-day Northview Diamond Club 2nd Annual Spring Bash was held at the Molino Ballpark. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Northview Chiefs Open 1A Districts With 17-2 Win Over Laurel Hill (With Gallery)
April 30, 2024
With 14 runs in the third inning, the No. 4 seed Northview Chiefs opened the District 1-1A playoffs with a big 17-2 quarterfinal win over the No 5 Laurel Hoboes Monday night in Bratt.
For a photo gallery, click here.
Jayden White earned the win for the Northview Chiefs in a mercy rule shortened four innings. He gave up two hits and two runs, staking out four and walking one.
At the plate, Northview’s Grayden Sheffield drove in four runs on three hits. Jase Portwood and Jackson Bridges had two hits each, while Dane King and Brady Smith, both added a hit.
In district semifinal action on Tuesday, No. 1 Central will take on Northview about 7 p.m. following a 4 p.m. game between No. 2 Jay and No. 3 Baker. The winners will face off on Thursday for the district championship.
NorthEscamia.com photos, click to enlarge.
UWF Announces 2024 Football Schedule
April 30, 2024
UWF head football coach Kaleb Nobles has announced the program’s 2024 schedule which includes a program-high six home games and four road contests.
UWF will face four teams that participated in the 2023 postseason and six that won at least five games, in addition to a 7-game Gulf South Conference slate.
“We are excited for a great 2024 season that we know will bring great competition both in the Gulf South Conference & out of conference,” Nobles said. “We are excited about each opponent on the schedule & look forward to being at our best in 2024.”
UWF will open the school’s eighth season of play at home against McKendree on Thursday, Sept. 5. Following a 35-3 UWF win in Lebanon, Illinois last season, the Bearcats ended the year with five victories and played in the America’s Crossroads Bowl.
After a week off, the Argonauts will welcome West Alabama to Pensacola for the GSC opener on September 21. The teams have split all eight meetings and the Argos have won three of the last four.
UWF will travel to Allendale, Michigan to face national power Grand Valley State on September 28. This will be the first meeting between the programs.
UWF will entertain the GSC’s two Mississippi schools in back-to-back weeks at home, facing Mississippi College on October 5 and Delta State for Homecoming on October 12. Both contests will kick off at 4 p.m.
The Argonauts will make the 825-mile trip to eastern North Carolina to face Chowan on October 19. It will be the fourth meeting with the Hawks and the first in Murfreesboro since 2016.
UWF will play host to former GSC foe Shorter on October 26 before traveling to Due West, South Carolina to face GSC affiliate member Erskine for the first time ever. The November 2 contest will be the fourth in the Palmetto State in program history.
North Greenville will make its third trip to Northwest Florida in five seasons on November 9 for Salute to Service/Senior Day. The regular season will conclude a week later at Valdosta State, as the Argos play their fourth game in the Eastern Time Zone.
UWF is 64-25 all-time with five NCAA postseason appearances in seven seasons. The Argos have reached the national semifinals three times and the national championship twice, winning the title in 2019. Since 2019, UWF’s 42 victories rank fifth among all Division 2 programs.
Tate Senior Jackson Leonard Wins Weightlifting State Title, Sets State Records
April 29, 2024
Tate High School senior Jackson Leonard won a State Championship at the FHSAA Boys Weightlifting meet recently in Lakeland.
Leonard competed in the 219 pound weight class as he won the Olympic style competition with a new state record of 605 total pounds. Included in his record-breaking performance was another new state record of 270 pounds in the match.
He also placed fourth in the traditional competition.
Tate junior Owen Davis competed for in the 238 pound weight class where he finished 12th in the traditional competition.
Photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Walkoff Win For Blue Wahoos
April 29, 2024
written by Bill Vilona
The players raced from the dugout and a filled ballpark erupted in glee.
The Blue Wahoos couldn’t have dreamed a better ending to their only two-week homestand and one of their greatest Sunday crowd settings in franchise history.
Harrison Spohn’s bases-loaded ground ball found the right place, the throw home bounced away, and Jacob Berry scored as the Blue Wahoos pulled off a 3-2 walkoff win in 10 innings against the Biloxi Shuckers, affixing a bright bow on their fifth win in the week’s six-game series at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
“You just try to keep things simple,” said Spohn, who put the ball in play well enough that Shuckers shortstop Freddy Zamora had to make a tough throw. “When the game is on line, you just want to slow your heart rate down and just find some barrel and put the ball in play.”
That’s all it took. But that’s only part of the showcase this day became.
Nearly an hour before Sunday’s finale, the ticket line formed at the stadium box office. And it continued to swell. So much so, that more than 1,000 walk-up fans purchased tickets.
They combined with a massive turnout of school children and parents from the Blue Wahoos’ Kazoo Reading Program incentive where area kids could earn a free ticket by reading four books at their age level and get their teacher’s confirmation.
It created a spectacular crowd at the ballpark’s 5,038 capacity with kids filling the outfield berm area, the party decks jammed and the concourse area teeming with people.
“I think it’s the biggest Sunday crowd we’ve ever had,” said team president Jonathan Griffith.
The Blue Wahoos have now attracted capacity crowds in eight of their first 15 home games, including three straight capacity crowds to complete the weekend.
The hundreds of school children also created a special scene before the game when they paraded from the right field service entrance and did a lap around the field to build memories. There were also several large group outings for this gamef
The Blue Wahoos took a 1-0 lead without a hit in the first inning. Berry walked, moved around on a wild pitch and ground out, then scored on a second wild pitch from Shuckers’ starter Jacob Misiorowski.
Berry also had the game’s best defensive play. Playing in right field in this game, Berry threw out the Shuckers’ Ethan Murray, who had tagged up on a fly ball in the third inning that Berry played perfectly with a catch and throw to the plate to compete a double play.
The Shuckers then tied the game on a pair of hits and took a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning on an Ernesto Martinez towering home run into the berm.
After getting their first hit in the game on Cody Morissette’s fifth inning double, the Blue Wahoos kept the deficit at one run behind strong pitching and defense. In the eighth inning, Sean Roby led off with a single, then scored on Dalvy Rosario’s two-out single to tie the game.
In the top of the 10th, Blue Wahoos closer Austin Roberts pitched out of a two-on, none-out situation when first baseman Bennett Hostetler, converted from catcher, snared a line drive and stepped on first for a double play. Roberts then got Biloxi’s Mike Boeve to ground out to Hostetler to end the inning.
In the 10th, Berry started on second as the automatic runner. Roby singled to put runners on the corners. Morissette intentionally walked. Hostetler flied out. Spohn delivered and the celebration ensued.
GAME NOTABLES
— The Blue Wahoos’ April attendance finished at 63,195. It is the highest April attendance since 2014.
— Before the game, the Blue Wahoos players signed autographs for 30 minutes exclusively for season-ticket holders in a special event on home plate concourse area.
— Twelve different area schools from four counties had students at the game, part of the 30-plus schools the Blue Wahoos have visited since the winter in the Kazoo’s Reading Program.
— The Helen Caro Elementary School choir performed the National Anthem and a smaller chorus then entered the field to sing God Bless America in the seventh inning.
WHAT’S NEXT?
WHO: Blue Wahoos vs. Mississippi Braves
WHEN: Tuesday (April 30) Thru Sunday (May 5).
WHERE: Trustmark Park, Pearl, Miss.
Blue Wahoos End 4-Game Streak
April 28, 2024
written by Bill Vilona
The Blue Wahoos were unable Saturday to extend their week-long winning streak.
But the game wasn’t lacking for notable moments.
An overflow crowd, which packed the party decks and went rows deep on the concourse, saw the Biloxi Shuckers rally from a three-run deficit in the middle innings to produce a 4-3 victory at Blue Wahoos Stadium, ending Pensacola’s four-game win streak that was the longest of the early season.
Aside from that aspect, however, the crowd of 5,038 watched a 3-year-old boy who overcame a heart defect throw a ceremonial first pitch and an 8-year-old girl who survived a life-saving procedure take a “Home Run for Life” trip around bases.
It was that kind of special night, even without the desired scoreboard result.
The Blue Wahoos took an early lead in the game when loading the bases on consecutive singles by Zach Zubia and Sean Roby, plus a Cody Morissette fielder’s choice play with an error on a force out attempt.
Bennett Hostetler hit into a double play that scored Zubia, then a strikeout ended the inning.
In the third inning, Zubia hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to score Shane Sasaki, who led off with a single. Roby flew out to end that inning, and both of these early opportunities for big innings proved pivotal later in the game.
Morissette made it 3-1 in the fourth inning when he lined a home run inside the foul pole down the right line – a feat more pronounced with the wind blowing in from the bay at a brisk pace.
The Shuckers tied the game with a two-out rally in the sixth inning. They produced three consecutive doubles, the first two off Blue Wahoos starter M.D. Johnson, who otherwise had a solid night. He had two walks, three strikeouts and pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first inning with two big breaking pitches.
Reliever Jeff Lindgren relieved Johnson and yielded a two-strike double to Andy Yerzy that tied the game.
Back-to-back doubles in the ninth from Darrien Miller and Mike Boeve gave the Shuckers their first lead of the night. The Shuckers bullpen recorded four hitless innings from three relievers to seal the game. The Blue Wahoos’ Paul McIntosh went 2-for-4 as the team’s only multiple-hit batter Saturday on a night where Pensacola was held to six hits.
The teams will conclude this six-game homestand on Sunday with pregame activities and ceremonial first pitches starting at 3:45 and the actual game first pitch set for 4:05.
GAME NOTABLES
— Zara Spencer leaped onto home plate, excited for her “Home Run For Life” moment that thrilled the crowd. What seemed an earache worsened into an emergency room visit to the Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart. Physicians discovered she had a mastoiditis infection and an abscess on the brain. Zara was immediately rushed into surgery.
Nine days later, she was released and the life-saving procedure returned her life to normal. With family watching, the bubbly 9-year-old raced around the bases Saturday night in a heartwarming moment.
— On a busy Saturday with pregame activities, there were seven ceremonial first pitches, including a 3-year-old boy, Henderson Woods, who was born with a congenital heart defect. But he is now a normal toddler and had the crowd reacting his first pitch.
— Rachel Balkovec, the Miami Marlins new director of player development, addressed season-ticket holders in the first base lounge reserved for those with season tickets. She also took several questions from the audience. Balkovec, 36, an Omaha, Nebraska native, became in 2022 the first female manager of an affiliated MLB team when she managed the Tampa Tarpons, the New York Yankees Low-A affiliate in the Florida State League.
WANT TO GO?
WHO: Biloxi Shuckers vs. Blue Wahoos
WHEN: Sunday, 4:05 p.m.
WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium
Fitterer Produces His Best Start As Blue Wahoos Win Fourth Straight
April 27, 2024
Evan Fitterer had grinded through his first three starts this season.
Friday night, he shined.
After breezing through the first three innings without allowing a baserunner, Fitterer pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth and it proved pivotal in leading the Blue Wahoos to a 4-1 win Friday night against the Biloxi Shuckers, giving Pensacola a fourth straight victory and series-clinching outcome.
In a game played with the strongest winds this season – blowing in from right field off the bay at 15 mph – it breezed to completion in 2 hours, 26 minutes before a capacity crowd of 5,038 at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
“I feel like the confidence is up with everyone,” Fitterer said afterward. “Everyone is playing a little better and building off each other.”
It was Fitterer’s first win after two no decisions and a loss. Friday’s outing, a one-hitter in 5.2 innings with six strikeouts, no runs, reminded of many quality performances last season when he made 23 starts for the Blue Wahoos.
“It’s really good to get your first win of the year. It felt pretty good,” said Fitterer, 23, a Mission Viejo, California native. “I felt like I was locating the fastball pretty well. Throwing the changeup over the plate for the most part.
“I was working on the curve ball earlier in the week with the pitching coaches. I made some changes to that. I was little inconsistent there, but I’m really excited once I dialed that (pitch) in.”
The best curve ball he threw occurred in perhaps the biggest moment of the game. The Shuckers loaded the bases when Fitterer walked one batter and plunked shortstop Freddy Zamora – one of three times Zamora was hit by a pitch from two different Blue Wahoos hurlers.
“My confidence was still there,” Fitterer said. “Because to me, they had not shown they could still get to me yet. Bases loaded, or nobody on, I felt they still have to beat me, so I felt really good.”
It showed when Fitterer struck out Justin Dirden with a curveball and the Blue Wahoos carried a 4-0 lead into the ninth inning.
“That was one of the ones I threw right,” said Fitterer, a fifth-round pick by the Miami Marlins out of high school in 2019. “I’m like, I want to do that more often. That’s the one.
“I know I sprayed a few (other curve balls). I hit someone (Zamora) with it. If I get more consistent (with that pitch) I’d feel really confident.”
The Blue Wahoos took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Shane Sasacki reached on a fielder’s choice and then stole second base. Sasaki had two hits in the game, scored three runs and had two stolen bases.
Harrison Spohn singled home Sasaki for the first run. Sasaki then scored in the fourth inning when Cody Morissette followed with a two out double.
In the sixth inning, Jacob Berry singled and scored on Sasaki’s double. Morissette’s second RBI single scored the fourth run.
In the ninth, Blue Wahoos closer Austin Roberts pitched out of a jam after the first two Shuckers batters reached on a hit by pitch and walk. But he struck out the final two batters after a balk plated a run to end the game with runners in scoring position.
WANT TO GO?
WHO: Biloxi Shuckers vs. Blue Wahoos
WHEN: Saturday, 6:05 p.m.
WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium