SoWal baseball advances to Final 4; Choctaw, Niceville eliminated
SoWal baseball came into regions as heavy favorites and dominated, capping a 5-0 run with a sweep of Suwannee to advance to a third straight Final 4.
SANTA ROSA BEACH — Fresh off back-to-back trips to the state championship, the South Walton baseball team seemed destined for a third straight Final 4. A Region 1-3A championship sweep of Suwannee to cap a 5-0 run through the bracket validates that, and now Nick Borthwick's crew will be the lone area team to make the trek to Hammond Stadium in Fort Meyers after Niceville was eliminated by Lincoln in Game 3 of the Region 1-5A championship and Choctaw was swept by Clay in the Region 1-4A finals. South Walton junior Justin Didier walked it off with a two-run single to back Coleman Borthwick's complete-game gem in a 2-1 win in the opener, and Vaughn Howard's three-hit, five-RBI effort backed Denton Lord's shutout and fueled the Seahawks to a 10-0 run-ruled win in the nightcap.
State Champs: Niceville dominates field events, wins 5th state title in 6 years State runner-up: Plasier, Tolbert win gold; Niceville girls finish 2nd at state T&F For the third year in a row, South Walton (28-4) is just two wins away from that elusive state title. But defending state champ Miami Springs (19-11), the team that beat the Seahawks 2-1 in last year's title game , awaits in the state semifinals with first pitch coming 4 p. m.
(EDT) Wednesday. That sets up aces Borthwick and Lord for potential back-to-back starts, the best-of-3 format now dwindled to win-or-go-home games in the FInal 4. In the region finals, neither Borthwick nor Lord allowed an earned run.
Borthwick stuck out 13 and gave up just four hits over seven innings in the opener, his lone run given up unearned. He now has a 0. 12 ERA, 9-0 record, 0.