Oviedo baseball makes history with its first state title

There's something about first innings and Oviedo baseball.

At the state tournament, Oviedo loved first innings. That's where they did the bulk of their damage.

A great first inning led to Oviedo's first state championship in baseball. The Lions defeated Sarasota 9-5 to claim the Class 7A state baseball title, a first in school history.

In the school's fifth appearance at the state tournament, and first in a title game, Oviedo wasted little time in establishing their dominance. In the Lions 12-0 victory over Durant in the state semifinals, Oviedo scored eight of those runs in the first inning with two outs.

In the title game, Oviedo scored four of its nine runs in the first with two outs.

JJ Woodard got the scoring started with a two-run double to center field. Austin Parker made it 3-0 with an RBI single down the left field line. Shane Miller put Oviedo up 4-0 with an RBI single.

Sarasota responded in the bottom of the second with a bases loaded RBI single from Matt Schlabach. The Sailors could have done some further damage but Oviedo starting pitcher Cameron Peppiatt got them out of bases loaded jam twice with back-to-back strikeouts.

And the Lions continued with the bats, including Christian Arroyo's two-run homer over the green monster in the top of the fifth to make it 6-1. 

Oviedo increased its lead to 9-1 in the top of the sixth with Ty Powell's RBI single to left field, Carlos Cortes' sacrifice fly RBI and Ryan Anderson's RBI single.

Sarasota made things interesting in the bottom of the sixth by cutting the Lions lead to 9-4 after Peppiatt was replaced on the mound by Nick Logan. The Sailors tacked on another run in the bottom of the seventh, but the rally was too late.