Manatee Baseball Headed to First State Final Four Since '63

is a school best known for its football program, with four state titles, two state runners-ups and five state semifinals under its belt.

But his year the Hurricanes baseball team is stealing some of the thunder from the football program. It advanced to its first state final four with a decisive 12-6 win over host Largo Pinellas Park on Friday night. The last time that happened was 48 years ago.

Manatee (22-8) scored five runs in the first inning and at least one run in every inning except for the fourth, and starting pitcher Correlle Prime settled down after allowing a grand slam in the second inning to lead the Canes to the state final four for the first time since 1963.

“This is a vision I saw when I got here in 2007,” an elated Canes head coach Dwayne Strong said after the win.” It’s been 48 years since (Manatee’s) been there, and it’s a great thing. We made history.”

With the win, Manatee advances to face Lakeland at 5 p.m. Friday at Digital Domain Park in Port St. Lucie for a shot at the 5A state title game.

The Patriots (13-15) had been the surprise story of Pinellas County, shaking off a mediocre regular season to earn four huge wins in the playoffs, including a district championship victory over rival Largo and a pair of impressive wins over Tarpon Springs and East Lake in the regional.

But they ran into a buzz saw on Friday, as the Canes offense kept pounding away at Pinellas Park pitcher Donny Norris, who had been the star of the postseason with two complete game victories in the past two weeks.

Manatee jumped on Norris early when it strung together five hits in the first, the highlight being a two-run homer by third baseman Trevor Beeman. 

The Patriots briefly made a game of it when freshman Brandon Grigsby lofted a shot over the center field fence with the bases loaded to bring Pinellas Park within one, 6-5, in the second.

But Prime (six runs, four earned) settled down after that, limiting the Patriots to just five hits and one the rest of the way, striking out nine batters en route to the complete game victory.

“I buckled down from there (after the grand slam),” Prime said. “Coach had a vision that we could do this ... and I wanted to do it, I wanted to go to the final four.”

Now the baseball program will get a chance to duplicate the school’s football success, which is just fine with one Manatee player who contributes to both teams.

“Football is always used to (winning) here, but the baseball program, we’re not even close to being used to it,” shortstop/wide receiver Chase Sandberg said. “I’m also on the football team myself, but it feels amazing, it really does feel amazing.”