Manatee's State Playoff Run Comes to an End

Manatee High's run at the state baseball playoffs is over.

The Hurricanes' season came to an end Friday night with a 7-6 loss to Lakeland in the Class 5A state semifinals in Port St. Lucie. Manatee finishes its year at 22-9 and having made its deepest playoff run since its state championship victory in 1963.

The Canes held a 6-1 lead after batting around and scoring five runs in the fourth inning to snap a 1-1 tie. But Lakeland battled back, eventually tying it up in the fifth on a run-scoring wild pitch from Manatee starter Correlle Prime.

The Dreadnaughts took their final lead in heartbreaking fashion in the top of the seventh — putting two baserunners aboard on errors and scoring on a balk by reliever Scott Kelly.

Manatee made four errors in the game.

Prime allowed six earned runs and threw three wild pitches in 5 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out two.

The Canes' fourth-inning onslaught was led by Chase Sandberg's two-run double and Bryan Voelkl's two-run single. Tyler Beeman also had a run-scoring single in the inning. The Canes knocked Lakeland starter Bradley Labozzetta out of the game, collecting six hits in the frame.

The Dreadnaughts got on the board in the top of the second on an RBI single by Tyler Prebor.

Manatee tied it up on Voelkl's RBI single in the third.

Lakeland will face either Pace or West Boca Raton in the finals at 7 p.m. Saturday in Port St. Lucie.

The Canes and Dreadnaughts were scheduled to take the field at 5 p.m. Friday at Digital Domain Park, but a rain delay in an earlier game caused the schedule to be pushed back. Manatee and Lakeland didn't take the field until around 6:10.