Jensen Beach rides arm of Chris Knier past Dunedin in 4A state semifinal to earn title shot

FORT MYERS — It hasn't mattered the day, the time or the setting for hitters staring out at Jensen Beach junior right-hander Chris Knier on the mound in the postseason.

With weather delays pushing Monday's 4A state semifinal from a 7 p.m. start to an 11:55 p.m. start, Knier made sure the Falcons' first trip to a Final Four would be a memorable one.

Allowing just three hits, Knier struck out five and issued a lone walk and extended his scoreless innings streak to 19⅓ over his last three starts while driving in a run at the plate to send Jensen Beach past Dunedin 2-0 at Hammond Stadium as the Falcons advanced to Tuesday's 4A state championship game.

In the program's first ever experience in the cauldron of a state semifinal on a big stage, Jensen Beach had to sit and wait as lightning and thunderstorms forced the other 4A semifinal that began a 4 p.m. between top-seed Suwannee and fourth seed Island Coast to be delayed two times for over two hours each time.

Questions surrounding whether or not that game and Jensen Beach's game to follow potentially being moved to Tuesday were in the mind of Falcon head coach Corey Cooke.

In the end, his players simply wanted to seize the moment to compete whenever that was going to take place.

"It was one of those things, like who has ever done this before?," Cooke said. "We were going to play it out and see how it went. No excuses. We were just excited to be here. You tell us to play on one of these back fields, we were going to play where ever. I couldn't care less. We just wanted to play, to compete and it doesn't matter where it is or when it is."

With the first pitch almost spilling over into Tuesday, Knier was on his game from the jump.

Throwing first-pitch strikes to 17 of his 25 hitters he faced, the junior ace only faced a three-ball count once all night and got 11 ground-ball outs focusing on staying ahead in counts and allowing his defense to go to work like he has all season.

"I wasn't really too worried about the start time (tonight), I just wanted to play baseball because it's an amazing environment getting to play at a stadium that you don't to play that often," Knier said. "Especially for a high school event, I mean I loved it. I was so excited to play and just loved the intensity of it all."

Knier's battery-mate Matt Kautz marveled at how simple his pitcher made it look on the state's biggest stage knowing that in the other dugout, Dunedin left-hander Trey Beard, one of the state's top pitchers, was not going to make life easy for Jensen Beach.

"He's an absolute animal honestly, I'm honestly excited to see what he does different this time," the senior catcher thought before Monday's gem. "Each time, he shuts out everybody, he seems untouchable honestly. I'm honestly lucky to catch him. He's awesome."

With Beard, who entered the game with 128 strikeouts in 70 innings, a formidable opponent to deal with, Jensen Beach's offense had its chances in almost every inning putting men on base.

Missing out on opportunities with men in scoring position in the first two innings, the Falcons (26-4) finally cashed in in the third inning.

After Patrick Ward's 1-out single, he put himself 90 feet away after stealing both second and third base. Knier faced Beard with two outs and got a pitch he could handle driving the ball back up the middle into center field to give himself the lead.

"I saw most of his fastballs were going up so I was trying to keep a little shorter approach and drive it up the middle or opposite field to help my team out," Knier said.

After putting his team ahead, Knier retired 9 of his next 10 batters he faced and was helped by a diving catch in left center field from Kyle Derrenbacker off the bat of Beard to lead off the sixth inning.

In the home half of the sixth, Ty Velardo led off with a double that was wedged under the right field line padding that robbed the sophomore of a potential double with the ball ruled dead.

After Derrenbacker flew out to center, sophomore Dylan Fatovich turned an 0-2 count into a full count and drove a single through the right side to bring home pinch runner Will Rader from second to give Knier a valuable insurance run entering the seventh.

Firing his fourth 1-2-3 inning of the night, Knier ensured Jensen Beach their spot into the 4A championship game that will again have unique circumstances.

Island Coast, right to the west of Fort Myers and Hammond Stadium, awaits the Falcons after the Gators impressively handled Suwannee with a 9-2 victory in their semifinal and will have a large hometown contingent to support them in its first try for a baseball state title.

On the flip side, for eight Falcon seniors, they all missed graduation that was supposed to take place of the initially scheduled first pitch of 7 p.m. Monday.

With the team anticipating a big group of support heading west Tuesday as the program like Island Coast also goes for its first state title, the excitement the opportunity present will help alleviate the reality of Jensen Beach having only 17 hours to rest before the biggest game they've ever taken part in.

"They handled today so, so well," Cooke said. "We're here for a job, we're here on a mission and we're going to conserve our energy and be ready to play."

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Jensen's Chris Knier shuts out Dunedin in 4A state semifinal