Northview Defeats Pine Forest In Match Played With No Officials
September 13, 2023
In a match played without officials, the Northview Chiefs defeated the Pine Forest Eagles 2-0 in high school volleyball Tuesday in Bratt.
Northview took the two sets 25-14, 25-12.
For more photos, click or tap here.
Northview (5-3) will be at Laurel Hill on Thursday. Pine Forest (0-5) will host West Florida on Monday.
We were told there were no officials at the game due to a scheduling error.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Tate Softball 10th Annual Sporting Clay Shoot Fundraiser Held (Photo Gallery)
September 13, 2023
Almost 100 people participated in the 10th Annual Tate High School Softball Sporting Clay Shoot fundraiser.
There were about 30 teams that took part in the event at the Santa Rosa Shooting Center.
The top three teams were Elite Mechanical, American Concrete Supply and Cordova Dentistry.
For more photos, click or tap here.
Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Wahoos Fall In Extras Despite Sánchez’s Awaited Return
September 13, 2023
Sixto Sánchez bounded out of the Blue Wahoos dugout and leaped on the mound.
Just being in a game again meant a lot.
Pitching against an opponent for the first time in three seasons, Sánchez used a two-strikeout, scoreless first inning Tuesday as a first step toward what the Miami Marlins hope is a comeback from a long road of misfortune. He last pitched for them in the National League playoffs in 2020.
Sánchez, 25, once among professional baseball’s top prospects, provided the Blue Wahoos an initial lift that led into an early lead. But the Mississippi Braves rallied with a pair of home runs off Luis Palacios, then made a 10th-inning run stand, for a 5-4 victory in the series opener at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
The loss ended the Blue Wahoos’ seven-game win streak. It extended what has been Pensacola’s thorn this season. They are now 1-6 in extra-inning games.
Coming off a six-game road sweep at Rocket City, the Blue Wahoos (76-55) again started fast. They worked four walks for a first-inning run off M-Braves opener Drue Hackenberg. They got another run in the second of an RBI single from Nasim Nuñez.
They took a 3-1 in the fourth by loading the bases before a fielder’s choice groundout from Victor Mesa Jr. But when Nuñez hit into a double play to end the inning, the Blue Wahoos didn’t have multiple baserunners the rest of the game.
The M-Braves (60-72), who are now 11-14 this season against Pensacola, jumped on two mistake pitches from Palacios to change the game.
Palacios was brilliant in his last outing, going eight scoreless innings on three hits in a win last week at Rocket City. He flashed some of that same effectiveness Tuesday.
But in the sixth inning with two outs and nobody on, he gave up a single to Jesse Franklin and Bryson Horne followed by blasting a pitch deep over the right field wall to tie the game. In the seventh, Cal Conley’s solo homer provided a 4-3 lead.
The Blue Wahoos tied the game when Cody Morissette led off the bottom of the ninth with a homer that cleared the right field wall and a leaping attempt by Drew Campbell.
The M-Braves won the game in the 10th when placed runner Campbell stole third, then scored on a wild pitch, by closer Jefry Yan.
The Blue Wahoos had their placed runner, Mesa Jr., reach third on a wild pitch with none out. But M-Braves reliever Brooks Wilson threw a steady succession of splitter fastballs that resulted in three consecutive swinging strikeouts from Nuñez, Will Banfield and Jake Thompson to end the game.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, former Pensacola Catholic standout Jordan McCants had a sacrifice bunt that became a game-winning play on a throwing error to score Jan Mercado as the Jupiter Hammerheads won their Florida State League playoff opener 3-2 in 10 innings.
The Blue Wahoos’ series with the M-Braves continues on Wednesday.
by Bill Vilona, photo Nino Mendez / Pensacola Blue Wahoos
Cpl. JR Spears Coed Softball Tournament Team, Sponsor Registrations Open
September 11, 2023
The Cpl. JR Spears Coed Softball Tournament will be held in October, but now is the time for teams and sponsors to sign up.
The tournament will begin at 8 a.m. on October 7 at Exchange Park with all proceeds going to the Jonathan Ross Spears Memorial Endowed Scholarship fund at Pensacola State College. This will be a coed slow pitch softball double elimination tournament with eight teams.
Team registration is $200. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available ranging from $100 to $1,000. For more information, email John.G.Hills88@gmail.com or call (703) 228-9874.
Corporal Jonathan Ross “JR” Spears was born on June 30, 1984, to Tim and Marie Spears of Molino.
JR grew up in Molino and attended Bratt Elementary, Barrineau Park Elementary and Ransom Middle schools before graduating in 2002 from Tate High School where he was an offensive lineman for the Aggies. Following graduation, he attended Pensacola Junior College where he was on the dean’s list. During this time, JR succeeded in his goal of losing 80 pounds so that he could fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a United States Marine..
JR enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in July 2003, completed recruit training at Parris Island, South Carolina, and graduated the infantry school at Camp Geiger, North Carolina, in February 2004.
JR’s first permanent duty station was with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine regiment, in 29 Palms, California. While stationed there, JR completed several specialized training courses and was particularly proud of receiving his EMT certification. From April through October 2004, he served his first tour of duty in Iraq.
In September 2005, JR and his unit were deployed to Iraq for a second tour of duty. On October 23, 2005, JR’s unit was attacked by Iraqi enemy forces in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. JR was killed in action saving another Marines life.
In 2008 the parents of Cpl. JR Spears started an endowment scholarship in his honor. The fund currently has a balance of $32,000 with yearly investment earnings of just over $1,000. Yearly, the investment earnings are awarded as a scholarship to student.
The goal for this and future tournaments is to increase the fund balance to $100,000. At that level, the investment should triple causing the scholarship to be even more helpful all in the name of a hometown hero.
Wahoos Complete Sweep of Rocket City, Set To Being Final Regular Season Series
September 11, 2023
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos wrapped an historic road schedule with yet another win on Sunday afternoon, beating the Rocket City Trash Pandas 9-5 to complete a six-game sweep and extend their winning streak to seven games.
With a week of home games remaining before playoffs begin, the Blue Wahoos finished their time away from Pensacola with a 42-25 record that is tops in the Southern League and by far the best in team history.
Once again, home runs made the difference as the Blue Wahoos went deep four times for the second time in four games. Paul McIntosh opened the scoring with a two-run blast in the first, and Bennett Hostetler and Cody Morissette added solo shots in the second for an early 4-1 lead.
M.D. Johnson allowed two home runs of his own, and surrendered an RBI single to Mariano Ricciardi in the fourth to tie the game 4-4. The Pensacola starter escaped further trouble with a pick-off and a strikeout, preserving the tie and ending his afternoon as the game went to the fifth.
Caleb Wurster (W, 1-1) pitched 3.0 innings of scoreless relief for Pensacola, and Jake Thompson put the Blue Wahoos in front for good with a two-run homer against Ivan Armstrong (L, 2-4) in the sixth.
Morissette added a sacrifice fly in the eighth, and the Blue Wahoos added two more insurance runs on a wild pitch in the top of the ninth before Jefry Yan finished off the Trash Pandas in the bottom half.
The Blue Wahoos completed just their third six-game sweep in team history, and are now a season-high 22 games above .500 at 76-54.
After an off day Monday, the Blue Wahoos begin their final series of the regular season on Tuesday evening against the Mississippi Braves.
written by Erik Bremer
FWC Hunter Safety Courses Set For Molino, Cantonment, Jay, Milton
September 10, 2023
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is offering free hunter safety internet-completion courses in Molino, Cantonment, Jay and mIlton. Hunter safety courses are designed to help students become safe, responsible and knowledgeable hunters and learn about conservation.
Participants must take the online course before attending a class.
All firearms, ammunition and materials are provided free of charge. Students should bring a pen or pencil and paper. An adult must accompany children younger than 16 at all times.
Anyone born on or after June 1, 1975, must pass an approved hunter safety course and have a hunting license to hunt alone (unsupervised). The FWC course satisfies hunter-safety training requirements for all other states and Canadian provinces.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
- Sept 11, 6-10 pm & Sept 30, 9am-noon — Molino Community Center
- Oct 2, 6-10 pm & Oct 28, 9am-noon — Escambia County Extension, Cantonment
- Oct 9, 6-10 pm & Oct 28, 9am- noon — Molino Community Center
SANTA ROSA COUNTY
- Sept 18, 6-10pm & Sept 30, 9am-noon — Jay Community Center
- Sept 25, 6-10pm & Sept 30, 9am-noon — Santa Rosa County Extension, Milton
- Oct 16, 6-10pm & Oct 28, 9am-noon — Jay Community Center
- Oct 23, 6-10pm & Oct 28, 9am-noon — Santa Rosa County Extension, Milton
Those interested in attending a course can register online and obtain information about future hunter safety classes or by calling FWC safety coordinator Jeff Schumacher or staff assistant Linda Adams at (850) 413-0085 for more information.
UWF Beats McKendree, 35-3
September 10, 2023
The season has started with UWF’s football team getting a pair of wins by identical scores.
But the latest one on Saturday was viewed differently.
The sixth-ranked Argos again received a dominating performance by their defense, along with more superlatives from quarterback Peewee Jarrett, but an alarming number of penalties (15) in UWF’s 35-3 road win against McKendree University created an urgency to correct.
“We’re not content with how this game went, so we have to keep getting better,” said Argos’ coach Kaleb Nobles, whose team opened its season Sept. 1 with a 35-3 home win against Kentucky Wesleyan. “Obviously, we’ll take wins any way we can get them. And we have a lot to improve on and these guys know that.
“We just have to clean up little things, clean up things between the whistles and be better about smart play. But overall, I am proud of the team and we have to keep improving up.”
His biggest salute was with UWF’s defense, which has been two field goals away from producing two shutouts. An astonishing 22 different Argos’ defenders recorded at least one tackle. UWF held McKendree to minus-32 yards rushing, recorded seven sacks, and limited the home team to just 2.4 yards per play.
McKendree only crossed inside the red zone when the Bearcats were stalled at the 9 on their final possession and missed a field goal. Their only points came on a 47-yard field goal in the second quarter.
Senior linebacker Gael Laurent shined again with five solo stops. Newcomer John McMullen, a graduate student transfer, had four stops, including three sacks. Onelio Rios also had four stops.
“I am really excited about those guys,” Nobles said. “That (defensive) line is awesome and just doing a great job getting after the quarterback.”
The team’s big performance blemish was UWF being whistled for 15 penalties for 160 yards. One of the penalties – a holding call — nullified Caden Leggett scoring on a 62 yard direct snap on a fake punt early in the fourth quarter.
It did result in a first down, however, and UWF scored five plays later on Jarrett’s fourth touchdown pass of the game to complete the scoring. Jarrett finished by completing 21 of 28 passes for 329 yards, including a 77-yard catch-and-run by transfer John Jiles, who played a year ago at Virginia Union.
Nine different UWF players caught a pass, which reinforced this team’s potential.
“We have to worry about us, not worry about the other team or the officials, just do our job as a team overall,” said Nobles in a message he will likely keep repeating to his team this week.
The win continued UWF’s well-earned moniker as “Kings of the Road.” They are now 32-6 in road games since 2017, among the best road records of any NCAA Division II team. They had a 16-game road win streak ended last December in the D-2 national semifinal game and that was their first road playoff loss at a campus site.
This game was the fourth-longest, regular-season road trip – a distance of 724 miles – to a school located 28 miles east of St. Louis. The team was set to travel all night Saturday back to Pensacola.
Their next road trip will be the shortest one in UWF history – less than 220 miles to Tallahassee – for a marquee game Sept. 16 against Florida A&M, which played the South Florida Bulls in a night game Saturday in Tampa.
After that game, which will be the highest-profile Division I team UWF has played, the Argos will start Gulf South Conference play.
“Obviously, there is a lot of stuff we have to clean up because the road will be tougher moving forward,” Nobles said.
Saturday’s game at McKendree began the way UWF wanted. The Argos scored touchdowns on three of their first four possessions.
They capped their first offensive series with Jamontez Woods taking a pitch from Jarrett and sweeping seven yards into the left corner of the end zone.
On the second play of the second quarter, Jarrett connected with Leggett on a 47-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0. The Argos then answered McKendree’s lone points with a six-play, 75-yard drive that ended with Jiles catching his first TD of the game on a 16-yard throw with 5:10 left before halftime.
Jiles’ second TD was more spectacular. He caught a pass from Jarrett at midfield, broke right through a charging defender, and raced the final 50 yards untouched for a 28-3 lead late in the third quarter.
The fake punt in the fourth quarter followed a timeout. With the ball at the UWF 38, Leggett took the direct snap, stunned the McKendree defense and raced past defenders into the end zone, but the ball was placed at the McKendree 30 following the holding call on the run.
“I told our guys, I’m not afraid to use (fake punt) no matter what,” Nobles said. “I don’t try to hold anything for anybody. I wanted to make sure we’re giving our guys a chance to score points.
“(Special teams) Coach (Jordan) Remsza said (before play), ‘Are you good with this?’ I said, you are dadgum right I am. I told our guys on offense I’m not afraid to be aggressive and go for it on fourth down, too, and we did after that (fake punt to finish TD drive).”
After the game, UWF players and coaches had a picture taken with the scoreboard in the background. It’s a new tradition Nobles wants to continue for all wins – home and away.
The Argos are now 5-0 against the teams from the Great Lakes Valley Conference with its Midwest locations.
The Argos game against Florida A&M is set for a 5 p.m. (CDT) kickoff at Bragg Memorial Stadium.
by Bill Vilona / photo Tim Vizer / UWF for NorthEscambia.com
Wahoos’ Sixth In A Row Is Milestone Win for Randel
September 10, 2023
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos won their sixth straight game on Saturday night, 6-1 over the Rocket City Trash Pandas, and gave manager Kevin Randel a piece of history.
Randel, wrapping up his third season at the helm of the Blue Wahoos, became just the second manager in franchise history to reach 200 wins. The win was his 519th in an eight-year managerial career that began with Class-A Greensboro in 2015.
Evan Fitterer worked around five walks and two hit batsmen to put together 4.0 scoreless innings for Pensacola, and Will Banfield broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth with a three-run homer off of Michael Darrell-Hicks (L, 0-2). The Blue Wahoos added another three-run frame in the seventh, with RBI singles from Bennett Hostetler and Norel González, to pad their lead.
Rocket City scored their lone run with a Bryce Teodosio RBI single in the fifth against Chandler Jozwiak (W, 1-0), but stranded 13 men on base and left the bases loaded three different times.
In his Double-A debut, new arrival Breidy Encarnación (S, 1) coaxed a pair of double plays and got the final 10 outs to earn the save.
The Blue Wahoos go for the six-game sweep in their final road game of the regular season on Sunday afternoon.
written by Erik Bremer
High School Football Scoreboard
September 9, 2023
Here are high school football scores from around the North Escambia area:
- Pine Forest 53, Pensacola High 0
- Jay 41, Franklin County 18
- Pace 24, West Florida 21
- Milton 28, Washington 0
- Escambia 39, Gulf Breeze 27
- Pensacola Catholic 24, Fairhope 10
- Navarre 45, Rickards 18
- Tate 42, Northview 14 (Game story, photos from Thursday)
ALABAMA
- Banks Academy 60, Escambia Academy 38
- Escambia County 46, Satsuma 6
- T.R. Miller 47, Wilcox Central 12
- Mobile Christian 38, W.S. Neal 6
- Flomaton 21, Hillcrest-Evergreen 13 (Thursday)
Pictured: The Tate Aggies defeated the Northview Chiefs 42-14 Thursday night. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Home Run Barrage Helps Wahoos Win Fifth Straight
September 9, 2023
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos won their fifth game in a row on Friday night, overcoming an early deficit to beat the Rocket City Trash Pandas 8-4.
A night after scoring all 11 of their runs on four homers, Pensacola’s first six runs came on three long balls. Before adding two insurance runs in the ninth, they had scored 17 consecutive runs on home runs.
Jonathan Bermúdez (W, 4-5) struggled early, needing 39 pitches to escape a first inning that saw him serve up a three-run homer to Tyler Payne. Adrian Placencia added his first Double-A homer in the third to give Rocket City a 4-0 edge.
The Blue Wahoos couldn’t solve Trash Pandas starter Bryce Osmond (L, 0-1) until the fourth, when Cobie Fletcher-Vance launched a three-run homer to left-center to draw the score to 4-3.
In the fifth, Paul McIntosh hit a go-ahead two-run shot and Will Banfield followed it up with his team-leading 21st home run of the year to put Pensacola ahead 6-4.
Bermúdez settled into a groove and got through 5.0 innings, racking up 10 strikeouts to tie a season and career high, before Zach Willeman and Luarbert Arias (S, 3) worked scoreless relief for the final four innings.
Victor Mesa Jr. added an RBI single in the ninth, and Jake Thompson capped a 2-for-3 night with a sacrifice fly for a final score of 8-4.
The Blue Wahoos continue their series against the Trash Pandas on Saturday night.
written by Erik Bremer