Sports Archive

Not even Mother Nature could keep Pace’s baseball team from moving to the doorstep of its ultimate goal.

Battling through a nearly three-hour weather delay, the Patriots punched their ticket to Saturday’s 6A state title game with a 2-1 win Friday at Hammond Stadium, the spring training home of the Minnesota Twins.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos pitcher Andrew Nardi has been promoted to Triple-A Jacksonville.

Nardi owns a 1.40 ERA in 19 1/3 innings of work. He has struck out 31 batters.

One more step on the road to state is complete for the Pace softball team. The Patriots polished off Spruce Creek 4-0 Tuesday night to advance to a 6A regional championship game.

A common theme helped make the latest win possible for the sixth-ranked Patriots (24-4), that of course being another solid pitching effort from Jayden Heavener, a handful of big hits, including a home run by Shelby McKenzie, and heads up plays on defense.

Tanner Sauls finished off the latest big moment for this 2022 edition of Pace baseball with a strikeout.

In fact, he struck out the side in the seventh inning to help seal the deal on a 2-0 win over University and punch the Patriots’ ticket to the state final four.

Ava Grace Wheaton won a 3A state championship in the javelin Friday afternoon in Gainesville.

The Pace junior recorded a personal-best throw of 125-feet-7-inches, more than 10 feet better than runner-up Avery Brincat out of Island Coast.

Walter Ford never allowed himself to get rattled Tuesday night in a pressure-filled situation, the moment never becoming big enough to consume the pitching star with Major League Baseball potential.

There were a couple of passed balls and a couple of walks that put the Patriots in a tight position early on in a Region 1-6A quarterfinal against Forest.

With her arms stretched out and a smile on her face, Shelby McKenzie acted as if she was an airplane coming in for a landing, swaying back and forth as she headed towards home plate Thursday night.

Whether or not the three softballs she hit ever landed is up for debate, but what there is no doubt about is that McKenzie’s big night was a difference maker for top-seeded Pace in a 9-2 win over Lake Howell in a Region 1-6A quarterfinal.

For most of the night in a Region 1-5A quarterfinal game against Gainesville Thursday, Milton’s softball team kept itself in the hunt for a victory on the road.

The Panthers grabbed an early two-run lead and trailed by only one after four innings of play.

Pace’s best flag football season in program history came to a close last Monday night.

The Patriots went on the road to battle Fleming Island and fell 19-7 to the Golden Eagles in a 1-2A regional final.

Milton’s baseball team saw its season come to an end last Tuesday night in a 2-0 loss to Gulf Breeze in the semifinal round of the District 1-5A tournament.

The Panthers battled the top-seeded Dolphins tough all the way through, keeping the game scoreless through the first four innings.