Story by Near Post Sports
Pace, fueled by a nine-run third inning explosion, knocked off the Tate Aggies in the 6A District 1 playoffs Wednesday night in Navarre.They move on to a championship show-down Thursday with the Niceville Eagles. First pitch is at 7 pm on the Navarre field.
Pace hurler Brandon Miller took the win in a complete-game performance. Tate’s starter Josiah Glodfelter took the loss. “I had it on cruise control, but I had some moments. Kinda nervous, scared me a little bit,” the 6-4 senior said. “I just focused in and threw strikes. Any time I got behind in the count, I just threw strikes. I knew they’d hit it into my defense, and they’re frickin’ amazing.”
He said his two-seam and four-seam fastballs were working, along with a hard-breaking slider. His best pitch? A two-seam fastball. “All day. Nobody’s hitting it,” he said.
The Aggies took both games from Pace in the regular season – 8-4 in early March and 10-6 April 1 – so the reversal sort of surprised Patriot head coach Jason McBride. “We expected a dogfight. Tate’s a good baseball team. It’s baseball; this happens sometimes,” McBride said. “Any time Brandon Miller’s on the mound for us, he gives us a good chance to win. Most importantly, he’s going to compete. Glodfelter is a good arm. He just kind of lost it there in the third. I didn’t expect a 14-1 game. It just kind of happened that way.”
The Patriots handed the Aggies just their sixth loss of the season, thus ending their 2021 campaign.
