State Semifinals
All games are played at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers. Tickets are $12 and are available via GoFan. Parking is $10 for cars and $50 for buses (cash or credit card).
Class 5A
Winter Springs (19-9-1) vs. Sickles (28-2), 1 p.m., today
How they got here: Winter Springs d. Pace 10-4, d. Tallahassee Leon 14-3, d. Gainesville Buchholz 10-8. Sickles d. Plant City 7-0, d. Lennard 2-1, d. Gaither 7-1.
Stat Leaders
| Category | Winter Springs | Sickles |
| Batting average | Sam Downey, .411 | Hayden Yost, .420 |
| Home runs | Logan Hughes, 7 | Caden McDonald, 11 |
| RBIs | Logan Hughes, 35 | Caden McDonald, 32 |
| ERA | Michael Vice, 2.04 | Luke Fikar, 0.42 |
| Strikeouts | Max Murray, 36 | Caden McDonald, 91 |
Outlook
The defending state semifinalist Gryphons are back in the final four, this time in hopes of winning their first state title. Since losing to Jesuit in the final of the Saladino Baseball Tournament, Sickles has won 20 straight games, currently the longest streak in the Tampa Bay area. A big reason for the surge is the return of Caden McDonald, who came back from an early season injury and leads the team in homers (11) and RBIs (32) as well as strikeouts (91) as one of the team’s aces. But the Gryphons are more than a solo act. They return eight starters from last season. That experience has helped, especially in tight games against Dunedin, East Lake and Lennard, all of which were decided by a run. The Bears are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games. The offense is potent, scoring double digits in runs in each of the last three playoff games.
