Meredith, Freeland lead Mariner baseball past Lely 10-0 in a regional quarterfinal

Just a game removed from blasting a go-ahead, three-run home run to win a district championship last Thursday, Mariner shortstop Alex Freeland had quite the encore in his first playoff game.

The sophomore’s two-run homer in the first inning was all that Tritons starter Jimmy Meredith would need as the junior tossed a complete-game, three-hit shutout as Mariner defeated Lely 10-0 in six innings Tuesday in a Region 6A-3 quarterfinal.

“Jimmy is always going to give us a good game, and Alex’s two-run shot in the first really helped us out,” Tritons head coach Tom Woodley said.

After a rally for the ages against Cypress Lake in the 6A-11 title game with Mariner coming back from 9-1 down to win 11-9 in the final three innings, the Tritons (16-12) jumped ahead of Lely as Freeland cranked a hanging changeup from Trojans starter Robert Rossetti over the wall in right.

“I could see him with the grip in his hand so I knew what was coming there and just sat on it,” Freeland said.

The Trojans (21-7) had a chance to get on the scoreboard in the second, but on a controversial call at first base as the umpire ruled that Freeland’s throw across the diamond beat the runner in time as a run was crossing the plate kept Mariner ahead 2-0.

Meredith got ahead of Lely batters all evening and sailed into the fifth leading 2-0 and would open the bottom of the inning with a bloop single to right that would lead to Freeland rocketing a two-run double into the right-field corner. Louis Alberro followed up with an RBI single to right to make it 5-0, but Mariner was not done.

Wade Williamson’s RBI single up the middle, another run scoring on an error and Meredith dropping another bloop single to right to score a run made it a six-run frame to give the Tritons an 8-0 advantage.

Meredith, who would strike out four and not allow a free pass for the game, gave up a two-out single in the sixth but promptly picked the runner off and would see his teammates close out the game with two runs in the bottom of the sixth as Barron Northorp finished off a 4-for-4 night with an RBI single to left to end the game.

The Tritons will host Barron Collier, who defeated Cypress Lake 1-0 on a walk-off hit in the seventh inning, in the regional semifinal on Tuesday.

“We have so much momentum right now, anything can happen,” Meredith said.

“Like the Cypress game, it’s baseball, anything can happen. Obviously being at home, you get your home fans, you get a lot of kids out and it’s really helpful because you want to show out in front of your school. It’ll help out a lot.”