High School Baseball: Pace outlasts Melbourne, weather to advance to Class 6A state title game

For the second time in a week, Mother Nature interfered. But as was proven last Friday, nothing has derailed the Pace baseball team from its ultimate goal.

The Patriots defeated Melbourne 2-1 in a Class 6A state semifinal on Friday from Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers. The game was interrupted by a three-hour weather delay after four innings were completed and the score was tied at 1-1.

Pace, the tournament's top seed and the home team on the scoreboard, immediately struck when the squads returned to the field. Junior infielder Alex McCranie delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the fifth when he roped a single to left field to score junior outfielder Owen Walters from second base.

After junior starting pitcher Jackson McKenzie motored through the Bulldogs lineup in the first sixth innings, Tanner Sauls shut the door in the seventh. The sophomore reliever retired Melbourne in order, punctuated by striking out Trey Wheeler on a fastball to end the game.

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"Everybody is excited," Pace head coach Jason McBride said. "We were glad to pull that one out. I felt like we started off a little slow. I think everybody was nervous, nerves plays a part in these games. But we're fortunate to pull that one out and hopefully tomorrow we can come in and get settled in a little quicker than we did today."

The Patriots, the top-ranked team in 6A, improved to 26-3 this season after capturing their 11th straight win. They will face either Tampa Sickles or Doral Academy at 3 p.m. CST Saturday for the championship.

Competing in its first state-title game since 2018, Pace is trying to win it first since 2010 and for the fifth time, overall.

Here are three takeaways from the Patriots' state semifinal win:

Running wild

Aggression giveth and taketh away.

Pace rode that fine line of aggression on the base pads. The team was bitten a number of times in the early going, but eventually cashed in at the perfect time.

After McCranie led off the bottom of the first with a double, McKenzie singled to center and McCranie rounded the bases. However, he was thrown out at the plate on a perfect strike from Jake Richardson.

The Patriots recorded an out on the bases in each of the following two frames. After drawing a one-out walk in the second inning, senior outfielder Landon Rogers was doubled off first after Walters flied out to center. In the third, Brent Cadenhead was picked off at first by Melbourne starting pitcher Caleb Miller.

Still, McBride trusted the running game with the game still hanging in the balance.

Walters reached in the fifth with a one-out walk. With No. 9 hitter Brent Cadenhead, McBride considered a sacrifice bunt to move the runner over, but instead opted for the steal. Walters swiped second and eventually scored easily on McCranie's base hit.

"That's the way we play and that's the way I'm going to coach," McBride said. "I'm not going to coach scared and I tell these guys not to play scared. So we're going to try and win a ballgame, and if we got the speed, we're going to try and run and put pressure on everybody that we play."

'Jackson stays in the moment'

Before the first pitch was thrown for Pace's regional quarterfinal against First Coast, rain dumped onto the field and lightning flashed amid dark skies for hours.

When the weather finally cleared, McKenzie delivered the game's first pitch at 10:27 p.m., more than three hours past the contest's scheduled start. The Patriots smoked Buccaneers 10-0 in five innings.

One week later in the City of Palms, the skies opened up again, only this time, the inclement weather came right smack dab in the middle of a tight ballgame. But if you ask McBride, Pace benefitted from the pause in the action.

"I felt like we got locked in a little better. It seemed like we came out and all the nerves were gone," he said. "I feel like we played a lot better than last three innings than those last four. It seemed to work out for us in our favor."

McKenzie may have been the player to take most advantage of delay. The junior relinquished a hit in every inning to that point, but was particularly sharp in tight spots when he returned to the bump.

He fanned a pair of batters and got Gavin Zieglar to ground out to third with a runner in scoring position to end the top of the fifth. McKenzie hit Michael Petite to start the sixth, but Petite was stranded on third when Ryan Hopping lined out to short to end the threat.

In his final action as a pitcher this season, McKenzie earned the win after relinquishing one run on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He also went 2-for-3 at the plate.

"Jackson stays in the moment. ... You want that guy on the mound because he gets himself ready to pitch and he gets himself ready to play better than anybody on we got," McBride said.

'Couldn't really ask for a better situation'

McCranie finished 2-for-3 while Broc Parmer clubbed a critical double in the fourth. After shooting a fly ball down the line in left, the senior catcher was replaced by junior courtesy runner Palmer Etheredge, who tied the game at 1-1 following an errant pickoff attempt and a wild pitch.

McKenzie's performance did more than vault the Patriots to the state title game. It allowed McBride his full complement of pitching options.

Needing just 12 pitches to get through the seventh, Sauls will be available out of the bullpen. Meanwhile, with the state championship on the line, the ball will be handed to Walter Ford. The senior and projected MLB Draft pick is 10-1 this season.

"Before the game, that's what I was hoping for, that Jackson could go six or seven innings and we could have Ford and Sauls tomorrow," McBride said. "So we couldn't really ask for a better situation than that right there."

Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached at (850) 503-3828, on Twitter @PatBernadeau or via email at pbernadeau@gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Baseball: Pace knocks off Melbourne, earns spot in 6A state title game