Winter Springs eased to wins over Colonial (7-1), defending Class 1A state champion Deltona-Trinity Christian (4-2) and Seminole Athletic Conference rival Lake Howell (4-1), while the host Fighting Seminoles showed off a big offense in wins over Pine Ridge (10-0) and Colonial (13-12) before getting shutout by powerful Seabreeze (10-0).
Junior John Sebelle threw five shutout innings and struck out eight in the Bears victory over the Grenadiers and then senior Vinny Censabella came back with five more shutout innings, allowing just two hits, and Andy Bowen finished up as Winter Springs kept the powerful Eagles, coached by former Seminole High grad Mike Maples, blanked until the bottom of the seventh inning.
Greg McKee had three hits and Taylor Snipes had a big double in an 11-hit attack as the Bears jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three innings.
Junior James Simpson then got the start on Friday and threw four strong innings in the win over the Silver Hawks. Sophomore Taylor Perez paced the offense, going 2-for-3 and scoring a run, while Daniel Bouch also went 2-for-3 for Lake Howell.
Seminole, which also won both of its preseason games over Orangewood Christian (2-0) and Wekiva (6-2), used a 4-run third inning and a 3-run fourth inning to break open its game with Pine Ridge and then closed out the run rule win with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.
David Amar, Matt Myers and Wayne Miller worked two shutout innings each, allowing one hit and striking out seven, for the Tribe.
Stephen Parrish led the 6-hit Seminole attack, going 2-for-2, with a double, two runs scored and two RBI.
Josiah Candelaria also doubled and drove in a run, while Cody Tilson had a hit, drove in three runs and scored two, Logan Riley singled in a run, Daniel Hoover singled and scored three runs and Roby Williams scored three runs.
On Wednesday, with the wind blowing out, Colonial and the Tribe hooked up in a game that had more of an appearance of a slowpitch softball contest.
The two teams combined for 25 runs and 27 hits, eight half innings in which the teams scored multiple runs and several extra base hits.
In fact, the Grenadiers out hits Seminole, 14-13, but Colonial also committed seven errors to just two for the Tribe.
Seminole appeared to be in control, taking a 7-3 lead after two innings, but by the time the bottom of the sixth rolled around, the hosts found themselves down 12-10.
But the Tribe rallied with two runs in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at 12-12 and then Logan Riley singled with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh to plate the winning run.
Riley ended the day 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Tilson also had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-5 with a home run and a triple, scored two runs and drove in four.
Hoover was 2-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and an RBI, Williams was 2-for-5 and scored two runs, Parrish doubled and scored two runs and Jose Bernacet singled and scored two to lead the way.
Clay Chapman had a monster day for Colonial, going 4-for-4 with two home runs, including a grand slam that put the Grenadiers ahead in the sixth inning, and drove in seven.
The Sandcrabs took Seminole out of the game right away, scoring eight runs in the top of the first inning, with the big hit being another grand slam, this time by Marshall Whaley, and then putting two more on the board in the third before closing out the run rule win in the fifth.
Riley, Tilson and Brandon Stiffey had the hits for the Tribe.
Lyman also picked up a big win in the tourney, blanking Seabreeze, 2-0, as Chris Atkins went the first five innings and striking out five before Chris Gilmore came on to work two shutout innings and earn the save. Padilla had a double for the Greyhounds, just one of two hits for Lyman in the game that featured just four hits total.