West Orange baseball tops Lake Brantley 2-1 for back-to-back district titles -- Observer Preps

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS After a drought spanning four years without a district title, the West Orange baseball team has gone back-to-back as champion of one of the toughest districts in the state.

The Warriors (24-3) grabbed an early lead in the FHSAA Class 9A District 3 Championship Game against the host Lake Brantley Patriots, later holding on for the 2-1 victory.

Senior Chris Seise, a UCF signee, homered on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first inning to set the tone early.

"Obviously it's big — it takes a ton of pressure off the rest of the lineup when (Seise) does what he is capable of doing," head coach Jesse Marlo said.

Seise scored once more when, while stealing third, the ball was overthrown into left field.

On the mound, junior Doug Nikhazy tossed six shutout innings for the Warriors before reaching the limit on his pitch count.

"(Nikhazy has) been good all year," Marlo said. "He just has command of pretty much all of his pitches."

Closing out the game in the seventh inning was sophomore Noah Janney. After allowing a few hits and a run, Janney gritted out the final two outs of the game to get the biggest save of his young varsity career.

"It was big," Marlo said. "It's a situation (Janney has) never been. He just did an awesome job."

With the district title victory, West Orange will now prepare to host District 9A-3 runner-up Dr. Phillips in the regional quarterfinals at 7 p.m. May 9.

The brackets for the FHSAA Class 9A State Playoffs can be found HERE.

Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].