Baseball: Ocoee splits first series of district play

Story and photos by Nate Marrero | Contributing writer

Despite the return of Matt Slaver and Noah Satterwhite, the Ocoee Knights (6-3) were outplayed by the East Ridge Knights (9-2) March 4 en route to a 7-1 loss on their home field — splitting the opening series of district competition.

On March 1, Ocoee defeated East Ridge 7-3 behind a strong relief pitching performance by Ryan Brewer.

During Friday's game, Ocoee fell behind 2-0 in the second inning and was unable to come any closer from that point on.

Carson Schlegel led the way for East Ridge both on the mound and at the plate. Schiegel pitched six innings while giving up only one run and at the plate he drove two runs in on a double that put East Ridge up by the final margin of  7-1. 

Ocoee had opportunities to score, but converted just once on a sacrifice fly by Logan Cariglio.

The Knights will now prepare for two district games against Lake Minneola this week. The Hawks split their district series with Forest (Ocala), meaning all four programs in Class 8A District 3 are 1-1 in district competition.

Ocoee will host Lake Minneola at 4 p.m. Tuesday and travel to Lake County for the second matchup on Friday at 7 p.m. The Knights will also host Evans at 4 p.m. on Wednesday in non-district competition.