Justin Burgess
Florida Area Scout

The 1A state semifinals are getting underway today starting at 4pm with Northview taking on Blountstown, followed by Williston vs Hamilton County. To highlight the first game, Northview has only lost two games all season and is fueled by their talented pitching staff that holds their opponents to under two earned runs a game. They are led by 2015 LHP Aaron McDonald who is 6-0 with a 1.84 ERA. As for Blountstown, they haven’t been quite as dominant having lost eight games on the season, including their district championship game. Their pitching, however, may be even better than Northview’s as they have two arms that have combined for 15 wins on the year. 2015 RHP Dylan Lee is 9-0 with a 1.12 ERA and 2016 RHP Derek Eberly is 6-3 with a 0.93 ERA. Both squads appear to be led by their pitching and this will likely be a low scoring contest.

The 7pm game will feature the defending state champion Williston Red Devils taking on the Hamilton County Trojans. Williston has lost only two games all season and is led offensively by 2015 OF Cameron Coffey who is hitting an impressive .528 on the season with 27 RBIs. On the mound, 2016 LHP and Florida commit Austin Langworthy has silenced opponents all season with a 0.44 ERA and an 8-1 record. For Hamilton County, they appear to be the underdog having lost their district championship and going 15-11 on the season. The Trojans did, however, take down a heavily favored Lafayette team in their regional championship game. They also seem to be a more offensive-minded team that is led by 2015 IF/OF Austin Windham, who leads the team in average (.406) and runs scored (27), and 2018 SS Javier Zamora who owns a .346 average and leads the team in RBIs with 22.

The championship game will likely feature Northview and Williston but obviously anything can happen.

State Champion Prediction: Williston