It’s already been a baseball season to remember at Timber Creek High School. After winning in the regional playoffs for the first time since the program started in 2002, the Wolves are one game away from the state semifinals.

On Friday night, Class 6A Coach of the Year Scott Grove leads the Wolves into the regional finals at Jacksonville Mandarin.

(Photo by Mike Dydo)

It was a 4-2 win at Freedom (26-5) last week, in a rematch of the District 4 title game won by the Patriots, which moved Timber Creek (23-7) along in the bracket.

With a 4-0 lead heading into the seventh inning senior Travis McPherson had held Freedom to just two hits on the night. The first against him came in the third inning when Alfredo D’Amelio singled. The second came in the sixth when Orlando Rivera singled to left field.

Grove stayed with McPherson in the seventh, though, even after he allowed singles to Jordan Scott, Jason Holland and D’Amelio to load the bases with two outs in the final frame.

Jay Gonzalez proceeded to drive in two runs on a pop-up to left field, which put the winning run at the plate. But McPherson held tough, getting Rivera to groundout to second for the final play of the game.

Then the dugout emptied in celebration.

McPherson struck out five in what became win No. 200 for Grove at Timber Creek. It marked the 15th win in the past 17 games for the Wolves.

The Wolves scored two runs in both the third and fifth innings while spending much of the night taking what they could get at the plate, against Freedom pitcher Michael Clark, and making the routine plays in the field to back up McPherson.

Three errors by the Patriots assisted the Timber Creek offense.

In the third, Tyler Marincov singled to right field and Spencer Angelis got on base with a grounder past third. Jason Anderson helped them reach home plate with a hit up the middle to centerfield, which was misplayed on a bounce, and gave TCHS an early advantage.

In the fifth, Marincov doubled on a grounder past shortstop then scored on a bad throw to the plate after Angelis hit a shot to right field. McPherson followed with a double to right field to plate Angelis and give the Wolves a comfortable cushion the rest of the way.

Timber Creek finished with nine hits in the game as both Marincov and Angelis got things started with bunts in the first inning. Freshman Eugene Vazquez singled on a line drive up the middle in the second and Branden Castro singled through a hole between shortstop and third base in the fourth.

Despite the setback for the Patriots, several big plays were made in the field.

Ronald Schreurs snagged a hart-hit line drive for an out along the first-base line and Scott laid-out to make a catch in right field for an out in the fifth. In the top of the seventh, Jeffrey Orvis fielded a grounder at third and fired a throw to second, where Rivera charged in to make the catch while all in one motion planting a foot on the base for a force-out. Orvis caught a liner on the very next play.

The Class 6A State Semifinals are scheduled for Friday, May 21 at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie with the championship game to follow on Saturday, May 22.

– (Contact Orlando Sports Central at JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com) –