Baseball playoffs: King stars for Snyder, Trinity and Bishop Kenny advance in extras

For yet another night, Aidan King was the king of Jacksonville's baseball diamond.

The Bishop Snyder senior turned in a career performance — 20 strikeouts in a one-hit shutout, a homer and double at the plate — leading the Cardinals past perennial challenger Providence 3-0 in Wednesday night's Florida High School Athletic Association Region 1-3A baseball playoffs.

King, who closed the regular season as Florida's strikeout leader, was nearly perfect. Aside from one hit and one hit batsman, Providence (13-12) could muster no offense against the future Gator pitcher.

Bishop Snyder (19-8) advances to meet No. 1 Pensacola Catholic (27-1), which survived a scare from Keystone Heights to win 5-2. Keystone (20-9) grabbed a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning before the Crusaders rallied, moving in front on a Chris Rembert homer.

Aidan Lynch hit a grand slam for Bolles to defeat private school rival Episcopal (19-9) for the second time in a week, 12-2. Chayce Kieck earned the win on the mound and David Luttropp also homered for the Bulldogs (21-7).

The next opponent for Bolles is No. 2 seed Trinity Christian, which survived a wild extra-inning contest with Ocala Trinity Catholic, 4-3. Jordan Martinez knocked in the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth for the Conquerors (22-6), who advance to meet Bolles on Saturday. Brady Harris went 2 for 5 with a three-run homer.

REGION 1-4A

Another Bishop Kenny-Baker County playoff epic — and this time, unlike last year's meeting in regionals, the lights stayed on.

Bishop Kenny (20-8) fought back to score in the bottom of the seventh, bottom of the 10th and finally the bottom of the 11th, with Joshmar Carbonell racing home with the winning run on a wild pitch to outlast Baker County 5-4.

Colson Altman worked eight gritty innings for the Wildcats (16-13), who repeatedly seized the lead only for the Crusaders to match them each time. Troy Ancayan earned the victory in relief for the Crusaders, striking out four in four innings to earn a second-round game against South Walton on Saturday.

Bishop Kenny also defeated Baker County in extra innings in last year's playoffs, a game interrupted by a late light failure in Glen St. Mary.

Suwannee (16-9-1) dropped a heartbreaker at Wakulla (21-5-1), when Haden Klees blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh to down the Bulldogs 6-5. Noah Lopez got two hits for Suwannee.

REGION 1-2A

St. Johns Country Day shook off an early scare to roll to an 8-1 win over visiting Gainesville St. Francis (14-10). Seth Alford and Nick Bowden both went deep for the top-seeded Spartans (21-6), and Jack Ensell struck out 11 over six innings of work. The Wolves had grabbed a short-lived first-inning lead on Colin Kuruppacherry's RBI.

The Spartans next play University Christian, which completed its latest one-run win, 6-5 over Gainesville Oak Hall (13-6). UC (18-9) struck for three runs in the bottom of the sixth, with a Bubba Crouch triple and doubles by Mason McLeod and Shawn Robinson. Oak Hall responded in the top of the seventh, scoring twice, but Crouch sealed the game with a strikeout to strand the tying run on third.

Connor Lewis went 3 for 3 and St. Joseph blew the game open with eight runs in the fourth inning, powering 13-2 past Christ's Church (15-9). Camden Biskup and Aiden Torrez tripled for the Flashes (20-8), setting up a Saturday road trip to Tallahassee North Florida Christian.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: FHSAA baseball first round 2024: Jacksonville Wednesday recaps