Sports Archive

Although the game only lasted five innings, it was a long afternoon for the Laurel Hill softball team Thursday as the Lady Hoboes hosted Destin. To say Laurel Hill was slow out of the gate would be the definition of an understatement. To say the Lady Hoboes ever stopped fighting would be a lie. But by the time the Lady Hoboes finally scored in the third inning they already trailed 18-0.

Ronnie Smith will close the door of his tiny office at the end of the Laurel Hill School gym one last time on May 30. When he does 35 years of Hobo history will walk out the doors of the K-12 school with him. Reverend Mike McVay might dress up as the Hobo mascot, but nobody embodies the Hobo spirit as does Smith. At one time or another Smith has been the head baseball coach, head girls’ basketball coach and interim head boys’ basketball coach.

With the start of spring football practice less than two weeks away on April 29, Baker School Principal Mike Martello announced Thursday that Barry Gardner is no longer the Gator head football coach.

Powered by a third inning grand slam home run off the bat of Maddox Smith, Baker rolled to a 16-8 baseball win over Laurel Hill on Tuesday. The Gators were firmly in control of the game from the outset, scoring four runs in the top of the first and never looking back.

Crestview High School’s flag football team hosted Tate in the first round of the District 1-2A playoffs Monday.

The game was all Lady Bulldogs as Crestview took no prisoners in a 25-0 win. The Lady Bulldogs’ season ended the next night in a 38-0 loss to Navarre.

Crestview baseball coach Tim Gillis will be one of the first to tell you Connor Riffe has a good baseball future ahead of him if he continues to put in the work.

Riffe, a junior, plays first base and outfield for the Bulldogs and leads the team in runs batted in with 10. At 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, Riffe is one of the biggest players on the team.

A tough week for the Crestview baseball team got tougher Friday night as the Bulldogs hosted a talented Catholic team. Boy are the Crusaders talented. Catholic pounded out 11 runs and Crusader pitch Jackson Khor threw a complete game shutout in an 11-0 win that was called after six innings.

By the time the Lady Bulldogs got their bats cranked up against Tate on Thursday night it was too little too late. The Crestview softball team managed to score four runs in the sixth and seventh innings. But the Lady Bulldogs never threatened as Tate had nine runs on the board before Crestview scored three in the sixth inning. The Lady Aggies took the game 12-4.

To paraphrase the old baseball poem, “Casey at the Bat,” there was no joy in Crestview on Tuesday night, 13 Bulldog batters struck out. The 13 strikeouts were only a small part of the story as Crestview only had two hits and nobody reached base after the fourth inning. Ironically, Jaden Appleby reached base on a third strike passed ball. The anemic offense by the Bulldogs wasted a stellar pitching performance by Anthony St. Vincent.

A quick look at Baker’s Layne Brewer and it’s obvious that he’s a young man that spends a lot of time in the weight room.