King’s Academy Falls 9-4 In Regional Final

John Carpenter’s sidearm style stymied Clearwater for a few innings before they rallied against the senior.

It’s a tradition for each senior to talk to his King’s Academy teammates after their last game. John Carpenter was hoping to do that at the state tournament.

Instead, Carpenter gave his speech in left field after the regional final.

Clearwater Central Catholic dashed the Lions’ hopes for a trip to states with a 9-4 victory in the Class 3A regional final Friday in West Palm Beach.

It was the fourth year in a row that the Lions’ season ended in the regional final.

“I played in this game (regional final) for four years and not to get past it, it’s rough,” said an emotional Carpenter, who started in center but was brought in to pitch in the second inning when starter Jacob Krigbaum, a senior, struggled. “I thought this year was definitely our chance at home. I love the coaches, I love all the guys. I figure if you’re gonna do it, four years in the regional final is a good career.”

Junior Joe Gomez had one hit and scored a run for King’s Academy.

The Lions (17-13) got hot at the right time, winning five consecutive games, including a pair of one-run victories over rival Benjamin in the postseason.

But they couldn’t parlay that streak into a trip to the state tournament, making three costly errors that helped Clearwater score six runs in two innings to take an 8-2 lead.

“I didn’t see it coming,” said King’s Academy manager Doug Magaw, referring to his defense unraveling. “We don’t ever throw the ball around like that. Sometimes you hurry things and it doesn’t go where you want it to go.”

Magaw said the team wasn’t nervous.

“Pre-game was fine,” said Magaw. “They just seemed to tighten down during the game, which is uncharacteristic of us.”

Carpenter said he thought the Lions were ready to get past their roadblock.

“Coming into the game, we were mentally prepared, we were ready to play, ready to get out there,” said Carpenter, who has committed to Tennessee Tech. “We thought we were going to win the game. We had confidence and a lot of us had played in it before. I don’t know if it was so much nerves it was just they applied a lot of pressure, they had a lot of speed. As soon as they put in play, if you threw it away, they took advantage of it.”

Freshman first baseman James Vaughan is one of the future stars for the Lions.

King’s Academy tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of second.

Junior third baseman Dominic Mercurio singled to left with two outs, moved to second on a bunt single by senior shortstop Joe Gomez and scored on senior Kelly Hanlon’s RBI single up the middle. The inning continued when senior John Monte’s grounder to the shortstop was misplayed to load the bases. Carpenter walked on four pitches to force in Gomez.

King’s cut the margin to 8-3 on Carpenter’s home run leading off the bottom of the fifth. The Lions added their final run on consecutive doubles by Carpenter and junior Ryan Johnson in the seventh. After senior Mark Zippin popped out, the game ended when Johnson was doubled up on freshman James Vaughan’s line drive to the pitcher.

“I’m very happy for our seniors to make this kind of a run,” said Magaw. “I have no regrets, certainly we’re was happy to get back here again…I wasn’t sure we were going to get to this game. I felt like we beat the best team in our division twice in 10 days.”

It was the sixth time King’s Academy has given up at least nine runs this season in losses to Jupiter, Trinity Christian, Benjamin, Summit Christian and Royal Palm Beach.

But it was playing those high-caliber teams that helped the Lions prepare for their postseason run.

And that will be one of the memories Carpenter will carry with him forever.

“We hit our stride going into the postseason,” said Carpenter. “My senior year to beat Benjamin twice in the postseason, that’s special.”

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