Niceville downs Crestview to advance to 1-5A final

By RANDY DICKSON

Florida Freedom Newspapers

CRESTVIEW - Niceville's Brett DeVall wasn't perfect Wednesday night, but he was mighty good.

The senior lefty threw a one-hitter and struck out five as the No. 3-ranked Eagles beat Crestview 6-0 in the semifinals of the District 1-5A baseball tournament.

Niceville (18-10) faces Pace in tonight's final at 7 p.m. The Patriots beat Tate 10-2 in Wednesday's other semifinal.

Crestview ends the season at 20-7.

"I think we did a heck of a job defensively," Niceville coach Kevin Berry said. "We made some great plays behind Brett, but Brett kept us in the game the entire time. So you have to give our defense credit for what we did tonight."

The Eagle offense was as good early as DeVall was the entire game, scoring five runs in the first two innings.

Matt Herndon lined David Pyle's third pitch of the game up the middle for the first Eagle hit and Danny Collins followed with a double to left. Both later scored on infield outs as Pyle worked his way out of the jam.

Niceville opened things up in the second, hammering Pyle for five hits and scoring three more runs.

Berry seemed to be pushing all the right buttons in the second as a hit-and-run play by Robbie Campbell with Kyle Kennedy on first not only took Niceville out of the double play, but set the table for the big inning.

Herndon had  his second hit up the middle in as many innings and Josh McDorman tripled in a run to supply the power in the surge. Jeff Boyer also had an RBI single in the inning before Pyle wiggled out of another jam.

Pyle went on to work five innings without allowing another run and struck out seven. After being ripped for seven hits in the first two innings, he only allowed three hits in his final three innings of work.

Niceville's final run came on a long homer by McDorman to lead off the seventh inning off Crestview reliever Cory Wenrich.

While it seemed that every Niceville hit found a hole, the Bulldogs must have felt as if every one of their hits found a glove.

The Eagles made several outstanding defensive plays through six innings to keep the no-hitter alive.

Third baseman Danny Collins ranged to his left and threw Trevor Carnahan out from his knees in the third inning to set the tone for the Eagles defense. In the sixth, Herndon robbed Pyle of an extra-base hit with a great catch in center.

Brett Moore got Crestview's lone hit of the game with one out in the seventh, ending the only suspense left in the game.

"They got a lead early and that helps," Crestview coach Tim Gillis said. "Our gameplan was to put the ball in play and I thought we did that tonight. You've got to give that guy credit, he's not an All-American for nothing.

"I'm just extremely proud of these kids. We just put so much into it that when it's over it hurts. It's disappointing, but I'm not disappointed in the effort these kids gave all year."

Niceville       230 000 1 - 6  11  0

Crestview    000 000 0 - 0   1  0

W-Brett DeVall. L-David Pyle