High School Baseball: Tate aims to defend Aggie Classic title as tournament returns Monday
Last year marked the return of the Aggie Classic after the annual spring break tournament had been canceled the previous two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After 12 teams took part last season, the 28th edition of the Classic features 22 schools from three states who will compete across six different locations in Northwest Florida.
The tournament kicks off on Monday afternoon with Tate, Booker T. Washington, Pace, Gulf Breeze, Pensacola Catholic and Niceville serving as hosts.
"We have some really good competition, we have some really good teams that come down. ... It's here and I'm looking forward to getting it cranked off on Monday," Tate head coach Karl Jernigan said.
Mosley, Mount Dora Christian, Nease and Olympia join the host schools to complete one of the largest number of sunshine state participants in this event's history.
Meanwhile, there are nine teams from Oklahoma: Booker T. Washington, Broken Arrow, Choctaw, Noble, Norman North, Charles Page, Santa Fe South, Union, Yukon. Tennessee is represented by three teams: Battle Ground Academy, Christ Presbyterian, Knoxville Catholic.
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Christ Presbyterian Academy is grouped with the all of the Florida schools in the Cardinal bracket while the remaining Tennessee programs and the Oklahoma teams will compete out of the Grey bracket. Following three games in pool play where seeds are determined by record and run differential, each team will play its final contest on Thursday, with the championship game between the top seeds scheduled for 7 p.m. from Tate High School.
"You line up and play just like everyone else does and try and do the best you possibly can," Jernigan said. "At the end of the day, everybody is playing four games in four days. By the third game or the fourth game, unless you are heavy with arms, everybody is kind of in the same boat. It's good baseball, it's on a level playing field. It's very exciting."
For many of the out-of-state schools, the Aggie Classic opens their respective seasons. However, Florida programs have been in action since late-February. And no sunshine state school in this tournament has gotten off to a better start than the Aggies, who have a 6-0 record. They are the only Florida team without a blemish this season.
Behind great hitting from junior catcher Bray Touchstone (.632 average, 4 HR, 3 2B, 16 RBI) and senior infielder Frankie Randall (.562, 3 2B, 4 RBI) along with terrific pitching from seniors Rilee Lowery (2-0 record, 0.00 ERA, 20 K) and Ethan McAnally (2-0, 0.95 ERA, 8 K), Tate has accumulated a plus-54 run differential.
Things will get much tougher for the Aggies over the next month as they have dates with unbeaten South Walton, Arnold and Lincoln along with two games against rival Pace.
"I've felt like we've gotten off to a pretty good start, but the big part of schedule is coming up," Jernigan said. "For the next month, we're going to get to really see where we're at. We're going to face some good arms, we're going to face some good competition. We have already, but this will get us going in the right direction, hopefully."
The Aggies are the defending tournament champions and have won the event on 11 occasions. Pace has won it three times.
Times and schedules can be found at tateaggiebaseball.com.
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: 22 teams from three states to take part in 2023 Aggie Classic
