Niceville baseball advances to 5A regional semis

By ADAM PRUIETT

adamp@nwfdailynews.com

NICEVILLE - After taking a hard cut, Jeff Boyer bent over and rested his bat at his feet, trying to stretch a hamstring that had just tightened up.

That's not to say he was all that concerned about stepping back into the batter's box.

"Adrenaline took over," the Niceville slugger said.

Indeed it did, as Boyer socked an opposite-field double to plate the winning run in the ninth inning as the Eagles squeaked out a 6-5 victory Tuesday over Rutherford in the Class 5A regional quarterfinals at Okaloosa-Walton College.

The Eagles (20-10), who got an exceptional relief outing from Brett DeVall, will host Pace on Friday in the region semifinals. The Patriots blasted Mosley 17-1.

Rutherford and Niceville engaged in a back-and-forth affair. The Rams led 3-0, the Eagles came back to pull ahead 4-3 and Rutherford went up 5-4 before Niceville knotted the game at 5-5 on Michael Wells' RBI single with two outs in the fifth inning.

Blake Norred pitched eight strong innings for Rutherford, giving up seven hits while striking out 10 Eagles. He was relieved entering the ninth inning, and immediately the Rams got into trouble.

Alex Beranek walked Danny Collins to lead off the inning, and he was taken out in favor of Michael Harrington. Josh McDorman, the first batter Harrington faced, moved Collins to second with a groundout.

That set the stage for Boyer, who sent the first pitch he saw after tweaking his hamstring to deep left field. The outfielder appeared to misread the ball off the bat and didn't have much of a chance to catch the shot after that as Collins raced home with the winning run.

DeVall earned the win after relieving Austin Wood to start the fifth inning. The Georgia signee, who transferred to Niceville from Rutherford, allowed three hits while striking out eight over five innings.

"There was definitely some adrenaline flowing early on to come in a game like that, especially against my old team," DeVall said. "I knew I had to come with my best stuff."

Rutherford scored three runs on four hits in the first inning against Wood, who finished the night by allowing five runs on eight hits with five strikeouts. The Eagles answered with one run in the second on Robbie Campbell's groundout and four in the third behind RBI singles by Boyer and Ben DeVall.

"They've been doing it all year long, so you've got to tip your hat to them," Niceville coach Kevin Berry said of his Eagles' perseverance. "You've got to tip your hat off to Rutherford as well."