Patrick Monteverde has been downright brilliant for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos this season. That didn’t change last Wednesday night in a 7-4 win over the Tennessee Smokies.
Monteverde, the Southern League Player of the Week in April, improved to 5-0 on the season as he helped the Double-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins stretch their win streak to 10 games.
Everyone knows about Jayden Heavener and Shelby McKenzie. The two Division I commits get the bulk of the attention when it comes to Pace softball.
But Riley Forbes is pretty good in her own right. And in a Region 1-6A semifinal Wednesday night, all eyes were on the senior standout after she crushed a lead-off home run over the wall in center, the ball landing on the roof of the batting cage behind it.
Brett Watson needed to go jump in on a picture her team was getting ready to have taken on the infield.
Her Jay teammates, newly minted as Region 1-1A champs, were waiting for her, the trophy in their possession, their ticket to the state final four signed, sealed and delivered.
Ethan McDonald and his Jay teammates watched from the dugout late Saturday night as Holmes County celebrated a return to the state final four.
Already feeling the pain of a 9-7 extra-inning defeat, already heartbroken that the dream of winning this Region 1-1A title had been ripped away, watching another team wrapped up in a moment of pure joy was simply one more paper cut for the Royals on a hand already full of them.
The Jay Royals moved one step closer to a repeat as 1A state softball champions after rolling past Freeport 10-0 Thursday night at home.
The Royals were scheduled to play Northview Tuesday night for the Region 1-1A crown and the right to advance to the state tourney May 22-23 at Legends Way Ball Fields in Clermont.
Two weeks into spring practice, Milton head coach Kelly Gillis likes what he sees from his team.
There have been injuries to deal and some starters to replace due to graduation, but the Panthers have clearly taken steps forward.
Mallory Baker didn’t call game when she hit a three-run home run in the opening inning of a Region 1-6A quarterfinal Thursday night, but make no mistake about it, that big hit allowed top-seeded and No. 1 ranked Pace to settle into a comfort zone against eighth-seeded Niceville.
Baker rounded the bases with a smile on her face and a bounce in her step before being greeted at home plate by her cheering teammates as the Patriots surged in front 3-0 and grabbed momentum they never let go of in an 11-0 mercy-rule win.
The Jay Royals aren’t done playing baseball just yet.
Down three runs out of the gate, the Royals rallied, forced extra innings and then went off for five runs in the fifth to secure a 9-6 win in nine innings Wednesday night.
Hard hits. Big plays. A little trash talk. The intensity level rarely trailing off.
You’d swear Pace was playing a game in the fall on a Friday night under the lights rather than running plays in a spring practice on a sunny afternoon in mid-May.
Jackson McKenzie had his bag on his back and was headed out of the dugout late Wednesday night.
A senior just beginning to feel the sting of his high school baseball career coming to a close, McKenzie
didn’t need to say anything. His look and his body language told the whole story. His words told a little more after a 10-4 loss to Winter Springs in a Region 1-6A quarterfinal.
