The powerhouse East Lake Eagles faced off for the fourth time against the underdog Northeast Vikings in the 7A Regional Semifinals.
After losing the District Championship to the Vikings, the Eagles proved with a 9-0 final score that their season wasn’t over yet and were ready to move onto the next round.
For Eagles head coach, Dan Genna, Northeast always presented a challenge for his team all season long.
“We always felt they were a hair better and I thank them for that,” said Genna. “It definitely kept us grounded and got us more motivated. I mean when they took home the district championship from us, that meant a lot to our guys.”
Starting pitchers for the game would be Josh Hale for Northeast and UNF commit Brad Depperman for East Lake. For Depperman and the rest of the Eagles, they thought they would be facing Northeast’s ace pitcher, Colton Tyson.
“We thought we would be hitting against him,” said Depperman. “He has giving us trouble all season long so we trained to face off against him all week. Every time we played them this year, it’s been tough. Our first loss to them was at their field, so we promised ourselves that it wasn’t going to be our last.”
East Lake would start the game off with a bang. With Depperman as the lead off hitter, he would take the first pitch from Hale and deliver a home run to deep center field.
In the second inning, Deppperman would single in the center field bringing in DH Andrew Belcik. After only four strikeouts and 42 pitches, Hale would exit and Ryan Quinlivan would step in to pitch for Northeast in the top of the third inning.
After right fielder Ian Lisle would single to center field, left fielder Andrew Monahan would deliver a two run home run to center. The eagles would lead 4-0.
Depperman would deliver a double to center field. Tyler Gardner would pitch run for him and an error throw from first to third base would bring him in for a run.
Cameron Gaskin-Aukett would pitch for Northeast to close out the game. With a single to right field by Steven Plaskett and a double to center field by Monahan, a big double to center by third baseman Christian James would bring in two runs. James would also bring in the final run of the game.
It would all end for the Vikings after Depperman would strike out the last three batters closing the season for Northeast. He would go four for five with 97 pitches in seven innings and 12 strikeouts.
For Genna, if they want to get to the states this year, they can’t change what they have done all season and just keep trekking along.
“I told the guys many times this season that the hungry dogs are going to get to it,” said Genna. “Just that they are powerhouses, we know nothing about the east coast teams that we will be facing next. But this team is extremely coachable. You have to stay on the roller coaster. At this point, you can’t get off.”
The Northeast Vikings ended their season as the 7A District 9 Champions with a 23-5 record. The East Lake Eagles (20-8) will face the Melbourne Bulldogs (28-4) in the FHSAA regional finals on Friday May 9 at Melbourne High School.