St. Francis, P.K. Yonge Headed To District Baseball Championship

The St. Francis Wolves will face the P.K. Yonge Blue Wave on Thursday in the high school baseball District 3-3A Championship held at P.K. Yonge.

No. 2 seed St. Francis earned a spot in the title game with a 6-4 win over the No. 3 Oak Hall Eagles Tuesday afternoon. Wolves head coach Kevin Maris was formerly the head coach at Oak Hall, and he says the win against them meant a lot.

Freshman pitcher Danny Veilleux got the start for the Wolves, pitching six innings before senior Garret Webb came in as the closer.  Maris says he was proud of his team’s performance on the mound.

Oak Hall scored two runs in the top of the second, and St. Francis answered in the bottom of the inning with a two run homer by DH Adam Chase to tie the game. Both teams scored a run in the third inning to tie the score again and in the fourth, St. Francis pulled ahead with an RBI double from outfielder Skyler Galipeau.  The Wolves would add two more runs on a two run single from Webb to put the score at 6-3. The Eagles cut the lead to 6-4 in the sixth inning, but it was not enough to overtake the Wolves.

St. Francis’ district championship opponent P.K. Yonge earned a spot in the title game with a 4-1 victory over the No. 4 Orange Park St. John’s Country Day Spartans.  St. John’s defeated St. Augustine St. Joseph’s on Monday night to play P.K., the tournament host and No. 1 seed. Blue Wave head coach Brian Simmons says what matters is that the win extends their season.

St. John’s got on the board first with an RBI double from third baseman and the Spartans would hold the Blue Wave scoreless until the fourth inning when shortstop Sam Mullins provided the momentum to get the bats going with a single up the middle. RBI’s from senior Justin Landers and pitcher Sean Kamhoot lifted PK to a 3-1 lead and Landers drove in another run in the fifth to seal the win.   Simmons says the fourth inning was the game changer for the Blue Wave.

Senior Justin Landers will have the start for the Blue Wave in the championship game, and a win for PK on Thursday would be their second district title in three years.  Game time is at 7:00 p.m. at P.K. Yonge on Thursday.