FHSAA OKs best-of-3 baseball; girls golf 15-under a record? | Varsity Weekly

Baseball teams looking to go deep into the state playoffs will likely need to groom more pitchers heading into the 2025 spring season.

The Florida High School Athletic Association’s board of directors on Monday voted 10-3 to scrap single-elimination games and replace them with best-of-three series for each of the three regional rounds.

The move puts an emphasis on pitching depth and makes the high school game more like college and pro baseball — where series play is a fixture.

“It’s a step in the right direction  for our state and baseball,” said Olympia coach Mike McDaniel, who is on the FHSAA baseball advisory committee, which endorsed the proposal. “Surrounding Southeast states have had this in place for a long time.”

In a Sentinel email poll, Orlando area baseball coaches who “voted” favored the motion 9-2. Several others said they were on the fence.

Mount Dora Christian coach Jason Sanders, in praising the change, said single-game region rounds “have always removed the element of managing and developing pitching staffs in the postseason. No longer will teams be able to coast with one dominant arm to the championship.”

This will extend playoffs, which in recent years have had region quarterfinal games played the week after district tournaments, followed by semifinals and finals the next week. The new format sets aside a week for each regional round.

Week 6 Orlando area high school football scoreboard (live updates)

There is concern about increasing costs. The FHSAA tried best-of-three for region finals only in 2008 and 2009 but abandoned that experiment. It said the change was successful competitively but not financially, creating extended trips for teams but not increasing revenue.

Another question was whether or not girls softball playoffs should also be expanded to meet Title IX gender-equity concerns. That will be part of the conversation as the FHSAA staff works to finalize the plan prior to its Nov. 3-4 meeting.

A proposal to raise baseball’s regular-season game limit from 25 to 28 was voted down 8-5. A concern echoed by several board members is that if baseball is allowed to squeeze more games into its season, all other sports with the 25-game limit, including basketball, softball and volleyball, would want the same.

Golf record?

Windermere Prep’s girls team likely set a state record with a 15-under-par 129 score in a nine-hole tri-match victory vs. Lake Mary Prep (145) and The First Academy (149) on Monday at Orange County National’s Crooked Cat Course.

Ava Zhang, a ninth-grader, shot 5-under 31 and junior Ariana Urea, the oldest player on the team, carded a 32 for the Lakers. Eighth-grader Claire Yang and sixth-grader Harper Zhai each shot 33.

Longtime Lake Mary Prep coach Mike Jamison said he has never seen anything close to the 15-under round. Several other veteran coaches offered similar sentiments.

“What these girls did yesterday was jaw-dropping,” Jamison said. “I was riding from group to group as usual, and every time I came to a foursome, a Windermere Prep player was rolling in a putt. They seemed to feed off each other.”

Lake Mary Prep’s Charlize Peterson shot 32.

Volleyball

A match pitting 7A No. 2 Winter Park (16-1) at 7A No. 4 Kissimmee Osceola (15-3) was rescheduled from Thursday to Wednesday ahead of worrisome weather.

Winter Park won the Metro East weekend tournament.

Horizon (12-3) won the Metro West but lost to Lake Minneola (11-1) in a 6A district match Tuesday.

Cross country

Hagerty cruised to victory in its own invitational by a 32-62 margin over next-door neighbor Oviedo. Huskies senior Jacob Leon took individual honors in a photo finish with Oviedo junior Colin Aysun, both clocking in at 15:56.3.

The girls champs were Lake Mary’s team and Lake Highland Prep eighth-grader Annabella Tomasic, who scored her third consecutive invite victory by more than a minute (18:24.7).

Winter Park junior Tyler Aguilar ran an area-leading 15:27.36 to win the JT Memorial night-time race in Tindall Park in Kissimmee.

Scoring spree

Venice (5-0), No. 1 in 7A, drove 80 yards to outscore two-time defending state champ Cocoa 54-51 on a 21-yard field goal with less than four seconds left last week.

Cocoa’s 6-foot-4 junior quarterback Brady Hart, a Michigan commit, completed 27 of 38 pass attempts for 527 yards and 4 TDs.

Venice’s average score to date is 57-46 — not counting six overtime points in a 48-42 win vs. Miami Northwestern. The Indians beat Bishop Verot 71-56 and Port Charlotte 49-41 in their previous two games.

Venice lost to Lakeland 60-48 in last year’s 4S state title.

Bowling

East River’s reigning state-champ girls scored a tight 3-2 Baker win vs. Winter Park (6-1).

Timber Creek’s Madison Bailey rolled a 275 game.

In boys play, Shelby Davis bowled a two-game 504 series in a Circle Christian win.

Ty Kennedy bowled 257 and Frances Johnson posted 255 in a tri-match win for East River (8-0).

Oviedo (8-1) dealt Winter Springs (9-1) its first loss.

Jack Powell shot a 479 series for Crooms.

Swimming

Oviedo outscored Winter Park’s boys and Lake Brantley’s girls to sweep the team titles in Brantley’s Patriot Invitational swim meet.

Lake Brantley’s Danzhel Tuliao and Charlie Hayden both swam on winning 200 medley and 200 free relays and won individual boys races.

Winter Park’s Ian Heysen won the 200 free and 100 breaststroke and anchored the winning 400 free relay.

On the girls side, Boone’s Arianna Wertheim won the 200 IM and 100 butterfly.

Hannah Le of West Orange was first in the 200 free and two relays.

Week 6 football live report: Winter Park at Jones Tuesday game goes final

Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be reached by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.