Niceville baseball claims 1-5A title

By ADAM PRUIETT

adamp@nwfdailynews.com

CRESTVIEW - Brothers Josh and Shawn McDorman share a little joke that Shawn can't pitch effectively until a runner reaches first base.

For whatever reason, Shawn is more adept at pitching from the stretch than the windup. On Thursday at Crestview, Josh took a cue from his younger sibling when the Niceville lefthander couldn't get comfortable from the windup while warming up for a District 1-5A tournament finals rematch with Pace.

Pitching from the stretch the entire game, Josh McDorman threw what teammate Matt Herndon called his "best game of high school, easy" in a 6-0 victory as the Eagles captured their first district title since 2005 and avenged last season's loss to the Patriots in the championship game.  

"They got us last year, and I think all the seniors and everyone who was on the team last year remembered that," said Herndon, who delivered the key blow offensively with a bases-clearing double in Niceville's four-run second inning.

McDorman struck out five while tossing a three-hit shutout for Niceville (19-10), which will host Rutherford on Tuesday in the regional tournament. Rutherford lost 8-5 to Mosley in the District 2 championship.

Niceville's pitching was nothing short of awesome in the district tournament. Austin Wood opened with a shutout of Choctawhatchee, Brett DeVall blanked Crestview and McDorman didn't allow a run against Pace.

"The guys behind me were making a lot of plays," McDorman said. "I only had five strikeouts, so they were putting it in play pretty good. Every time they got close (to scoring), one of my teammates made a great play behind me."

Thanks to its second-inning outburst, Niceville didn't leave much doubt. It started with a pair of singles by Jordan Demos and Michael Wells and then Pace starter Craig Brown got wild, walking Ben DeVall and, one out later, issuing a free pass to Stephen Clements that brought in Niceville's first run.

Herndon followed by cracking a double to the left-center gap that brought in three more runs.

Tyler Raggard relieved Brown in the third inning and pitched solidly, allowing two unearned runs in the seventh inning on Robby Campbell's double. Campbell, Wells and McDorman had two hits apiece.

C.T. Bradford, Boone Shear and Seth Fricks collected hits for Pace, which travels to Mosley for the regional quarterfinals. McDorman retired 11 of the last 12 Patriots to seal the win.

"(McDorman) just manned up, went out there and shined," Niceville coach Kevin Berry said. "Again, our defense showed up.

"We had a lot of adversity this year, and I'm so proud of our kids. They overcame the adversity, they adjusted and they did really well."

Niceville        040 000 2 - 6 9 1

Pace               000 000 0 - 0 3 1

W: Josh McDorman L: Craig Brown