Crestview baseball downs FWB

By RANDY DICKSON

Florida Freedom Newspapers

FORT WALTON BEACH - Cory Wenrich hit a two-run homer with two outs in the top of the ninth to give Crestview a 10-8 win over Fort Walton Beach in District 1-5A play.

The win, coupled with Niceville's 1-0 victory over Pace, gives the Bulldogs (18-5, 10-4 district) the regular season district title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming district tournament.

With two outs in the ninth, Augie Willis kept the inning alive by sending a line drive up the middle. Wenrich then stepped up and blasted an 0-2 pitch over the fence for the game-winning runs.

 "It was a high fastball," Wenrich said. "I was trying to win the game right there and drive Augie in."

Crestview coach Tim Gillis tried to downplay clinching the top seed.

"I'm proud of these kids whatever seed we are," he said. "The bottom line is we still have a lot of work to do in the tournament, and this is a long way from being over."

In the early going it seemed as if the game might be over early for the Bulldogs.

Crestview took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when courtesy runner Jordan Smith, running for Wenrich, scored from third on a double steal.

But the Vikings (9-13, 4-9) couldn't do anything wrong in the home half of the second as they scored seven runs to surge in front.

Fort Walton Beach sent 12 batters to the plate and pounded David Pyle for five hits to go along with a hit batter, a walk and a pair of Bulldog errors.

Austin Sullivan led off the inning with a home run to left. Blake Bechnel, Brandon Horn, Robin Bailey and Chase Dodson also had hits in the inning. Bailey and Dodson each drove in two runs with their hits.

With Sullivan pitching well, the Vikings seemingly had the game well in hand.

A solo homer by Nathan Bell cut the Fort Walton Beach lead to 7-2 in the fourth.

The Vikings looked as if they were going to break the game open in the bottom of the fourth.

Fort Walton Beach loaded the bases with one out, but Brock Herrington hit a two hopper back to Pyle for an inning-ending double play.

After that play, the momentum seemed to swing in Crestview's favor.

The Bulldogs rallied for two runs in the fifth with two outs, then took advantage of two Viking errors in the sixth to take an 8-7 lead. Danny Arnette's three-run triple to score Bell, Josh Edwards and Trevor Carnahan was the big shot of the inning.

At that time the Vikings might have been down, but they weren't out yet.

Fort Walton Beach tied things up with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Horn started things off with a single and moved to second on a passed ball before scoring on a base hit by Bailey to send the game into extra innings.

Edwards took over for Pyle in the eighth and worked two scoreless innings with three strikeouts for the win.

Viking coach David Garner only needed to look at his team's five errors to explain what happened.

"I thought we were just too generous," he said. "They are too good a team to let that many runners reach like because they'll make you pay."

The Vikings travel to Pine Forest today to take on the Eagles. Crestview plays at Navarre on Monday.

Crestview                     010 124 002 -10 11 3

Fort Walton Beach       070 000 100 -  8 12 5

W-Josh Edwards, L- Robin Bailey