money High school baseball: Lake Minneola advances to regional semis with convincing win
MINNEOLA — Another monkey is off the backs of the Lake Minneola High School baseball team.
Among feats accomplished for the first time in the recent past, the Hawks have swept season series with rivals South Lake and East Ridge. Now, they can scratch winning a regional playoff game off the list.
Ryan Paul pitched five shutout innings and Drew Clymer blasted a two-run homer Tuesday to power Lake Minneola to a 6-0 win against Lake Wales in the Class 5A-Region 3 quarterfinals on The Hill. With the win, the Hawks improved to 19-7 on the season will host New Smyrna Beach at 7 p.m. Thursday in a regional semifinal tilt.
The Barracudas beat Rockledge 5-0 Tuesday in their regional quarterfinal game. New Smyrna Beach is the No. 4 in Region 3.
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Breakthrough win in regionals
“I’m excited,” said Lake Minneola coach Kerry Whetro. “We were 0-and-4 in school history in regional games coming into this game and it feels — big time — like we got off a big monkey off our backs. Our kids fought tonight, especially Ryan Paul.
“He didn’t have his best stuff, but he made some good pitches and got some outs. Our hitters came through and got some big hits with runners on base, which was problem for us the first part of the year when we were leaving major cities on the bases. I like where we are right now.”
The Hawks, the region’s top-seeded team, scored the only run they would need in the second inning when Sam Rice scored when Shane Thomas grounded out. They added two more in the third when Clymer lifted a towering two-out fly ball to the alley in right-center field that seemed at first to be a potential inning-ending out.
But, the ball got caught up in a jet stream that was blowing out to right and landed well over the fence and scored Ethan Diaz ahead of Clymer.
Lake Minneola added another run in the fourth inning and closed out the scoring with two more in the fifth.
Paul, while not overpowering, was more than up than up to the task of making the most of what his offense provided. The junior right-hander scattered four hits over five innings, striking out four while walking three and allowing one runner past second base.
Zack Colangelo and Zack Walsh each pitched an inning in relief to put a bow on the win.
JoJo Smiley paced the Hawks offense with three hits and a run scored. Clymer had two hits and scored twice.
Lake Minneola batted .294 — 5-for-17 — with runners in scoring position, while Paul held the Highlanders hitless — 0-for-5 — in comparable situations.
Lake Wales, the region’s No. 8 seed, wrapped up its season with a 13-15 record.
More scores
Also in Region 3 on Tuesday, No. 2 seeded Eau Gallie blanked Zephyrhills 8-0 and No. 6 seed Wesley Chapel Cypress Creek upset third seeded Okeechobee 6-4. Eau will host Cypress Creek Thursday in the region’s other semifinal contest.
The winners of Thursday’s games will meet at 7 p.m. Monday at the higher seeded team for the regional championship and a berth in the Class 5A Final Four. The state semifinals — the Final Four — are set for May 19 at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.
Tickets for Thursday’s game are $7.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: High school baseball: Lake Minneola gets breakthrough win in regionals
