The Weeki Wachee High baseball team hosted their first district championship game in program history on Thursday, April 16, but fell short of collecting their first district championship trophy, losing 7-3 to visiting Hudson in the District 4A-6 Tournament title game.
“Walked too many guys tonight, made key defensive lapses that hurt us,” Weeki Wachee head coach Patrick McHugh said. “This is a special group of kids. My full anticipation is this isn’t the last game for us this season. We’ll be playing somewhere else next Friday night and wherever we are, we’re going to give it heck.” The Hornets (12-11) were hoping to advance to regionals for just the second time, the first time coming back in 2016 as a district runner-up.
The team had hoped to secure an automatic trip to regionals by winning the district. As the top seed in the tournament, they got to play at home against the second-seeded Cobras (18-8). Things started off well in the bottom of the first inning. Derek Giordano worked a leadoff walk and eventually scored on a two-out single to center field off the bat of starting player. However, a sloppy, four-run second inning put them in a hole they couldn’t dig out of.
McHugh was referring to the regional quarterfinals, a single-elimination round that will take place Friday, April 24. The Hornets seemed to be in a good position to keep playing, ranked seventh in Region 4A-2 ahead of Hudson in eighth and well in front of Citrus for the potential final regional playoff spot.
Originally reported by Hernando Sun
Sources: Hernando Sun
