Pirates make it 19, play for district title

The Pirates made it 19 wins in a row Tuesday night when they beat visiting Wolfson 7-2 in the semifinal round of the District 3-3A tournament.

The Fernandina Beach High School baseball team (21-3) advanced to the championship game Thursday, where they faced top-seed Providence.

The Pirates scored three runs bottom of the first inning and three more bot-tom of fifth Tuesday to take a 6-0 lead. Wolfson answered with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth, cutting the hosts’ lead to 6-2. FBHS tacked on one more run in the bottom of sixth.

Pirate batters had 11 hits on the night. Caden Hartman had three of them, including a double, and knocked in a run. Jamieson Keith, Jackson Denton and Quinten Dye (two RBIs) had two hits apiece, and Xavier Hutton-Corp and Sam Simonds had a hit each. Sean Benjamin had an RBI.

Denton stole two bases, and Keith and Hartman stole one apiece.

Cole Perkins got the win on the mound. He gave up two runs on eight hits and struck out nine in 5.1 innings. Theron Paetsch gave up a hit to close out the inning, and Hartman finished up, giving up no runs or hits and striking out two in the top of the seventh.

“Another great win for the boys,” FBHS head coach Jon Shave said. “Wolfson’s had a very good year and will definitely make the playoffs. So we beat a good team.

“I thought we came out with good energy and did what we needed to do this time of year. Cole Perkins threw a lot of strikes, and we played good defense behind him. Offense was solid with Caden Hartman and Quinten Dye leading the way.

“I’d like to thank the community for coming out and supporting our team.”

The Pirates, the district’s second seed, traveled to Jacksonville Thursday to take on top-seed Providence, Tuesday’s 4-1 winner over Bolles, in the championship.

Yulee (15-10) also played Thursday for a district title. The Hornets beat Stanton 6-3 Tuesday at home in a semifinal matchup of the District 3-4A tournament. Yulee scored two runs in the top of the first and second innings, before Stanton cut the lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the third. The Hornets scored two more in the top of the sixth to put it away. Josh McCormick went 4.2 innings for 
the win and Brodie Nichols 2.1 for the save. Bubba Crouch had three hits and two RBIs.

Amauri Goff had two hits, and JJ Matuson had a two-run double. Yulee, the second seed, faced the top seed, host Bishop Kenny, Thursday in the title game. The Crusaders beat Paxon 7-2 Tuesday in the other semifinal game. “Feels great to be back in the district championship again,” Yulee head coach Fred Matricardi said. “Going into the year, I knew we would be much improved, but this group has exceeded expectations with the youth we had. “It’s always good to go against Bishop Kenny for the district championship. I had good games against them at Baker County, and now this is the third time in five years at Yulee we get to play them for the district championship.”