FHSAA BASEBALL: Spruce Creek beats Durant, 1-0, to advance to 7A state championship game

FORT MYERS — After giving up a one-out double in the bottom of the eighth, Spruce Creek pitcher Brandon Neely knew his margin of error just shrunk.

Give up another hit and the game would be tied.

Creek head coach Matt Cleveland didn’t remember what he told Neely during his mound visit. But Neely did.

“You got this,” Cleveland told him.

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Yes he did. The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder struck out the next two batters he faced — the second on three pitches — to preserve the Hawks’ 1-0 victory and send them to Saturday's 7A state championship.

The Hawks, who last won a title in 2012, will face Stoneman Douglas at 4 p.m. in Fort Myers.

“You can’t take the ball away from a kid like that,” Cleveland said.

Corey Robinson singled, stole second and scored on Dalton Hurst’s RBI hit for the only run of the game.

“The catcher did a good job of blocking the plate,” Robinson said. “He had his leg out but I reached for the plate with my arm and two of my fingers swiped it. That’s enough for me.”

For seven innings, Neely and Durant starting pitcher Sean Hermann matched each other pitch-for-pitch. Neely faced 28 batters, Hermann 27.

Neely walked two, struck out 10 and gave up three hits in eight innings. Hermann walked none, struck out nine and gave up four hits.

Neither allowed a runner to reach third base. Neely allowed two baserunners in an inning twice and Hermann once.

Neely retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced. Hermann shut down eight of the last nine batters he faced.

“It’s hard to find two better arms in a high school baseball game,” Cleveland said. “I haven’t seen something like that in a long time. We knew their kid was tough. It was hard to string stuff together with him. Brandon made some great pitchers.”

Durant coach Butch Valdes echoed those comments.

“(Hermann) is a bulldog in the fight,” he said. “We knew Neely was the real deal and he was gonna be tough. He’s a heck of a pitcher and that’s why he’s here. We had to play small ball and we didn’t execute.”

Spruce Creek (23-8) made the Cougars (22-7) pay for lack of execution by turning double plays in the third and fourth innings.

In the top of the eighth, Robinson started the Hawks rally with a single. Getting a signal from Cleveland, he stole second as Hurst took a second strike.

“I knew if I got to second, Dalton would bring me home,” Robinson said.

Clutch all year, Hurst came through again with a hard-hit ball to right. Cleveland didn’t hesitate on sending Robinson.

The Hawks proceeded to load the bases but couldn’t get an insurance run for Neely, who started the bottom of the frame by getting a flyout before Carlos Morales hit his double.

Neely then got a strikeout, which put his pitch count at 103.

“This was going to be his last batter,” Cleveland said.

Neely, a Florida commit, said he didn’t want his coach “to take the ball away from me.” He looked at the runner to keep him close to second.

“I gave it my all the last inning,” he said. “Luckily, they didn’t make hard contact.”

Three pitches later, the game was over.