St. Joe downs Franklin County in opening round of playoffs
Port St. Joe jumped out to a 4-0 in the first two innings and held on to defeat Franklin County 6-2 in the first round of the 1A District 4 baseball tournament at Bozeman High School on Tuesday, May 3.
Although getting only four hits, the Tiger Sharks took advantage of four Seahawk errors during the game, and three St. Joe pitchers kept the Franklin County offense at bay for most of the game.
Jack Trochessett had two hits for St. Joe, including a double and scored a run. Dakota Quinn had a hit, scored once, and drove in a run. Max Godwin also had a hit and scored a run for the Sharks.
Jentzen Odom, who coaxed the final out on the mound, scored and drove in a run. Jabara Pearson and Fisher Vandertulip also scored a run for St. Joe.
Winning pitcher Donovan Cumbie allowed four hits and two runs during his four innings. Vandertulip started the fifth inning, but Coach Ashley Summerlin had to pull him and allow Odom to pitch the final out in the seventh inning due to pitch count rules.
“If I had left (Vandertulip) in, we couldn’t use him in Thursday’s game,” said Summerlin.
Now 12-11, St. Joe has a tough test Thursday when they face Bozeman, which defeated Wewa 17-1 to advance to the district title game.
Summerlin is pleased with his team’s progress.
“We’ve come a long way, since the start of the season, winning 12 of our last 15 games,” he said. “We’ve had a difficult schedule and most of our 11 losses have come against schools that are in higher classifications.”
The loss, while it eliminates Franklin County from a chance to win a district title, does not oust them from playoff consideration. The FHSAA uses a computer ranking system to determine the two at-large slots for teams in the region. The determination of who advances will be based on these rankings after Thursday’s district championship game.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.