Three Frederica Academy teams advance to Final Four

Frederica Academy had three teams playing in the Georgia Independent School Association state quarterfinals in their respective sports this weekend.

Now, the private school on St. Simons Island has three teams in Final Four.

The Frederica Academy baseball team advanced to the Class 3A semifinals Saturday afternoon with a 9-8 victory over John Milledge Academy at home.

The Knights won the opening game of the best-of-3 series by a 9-4 tally on Friday night.

Also on Friday, both the Frederica boys and girls soccer teams advanced to the state semifinals with back-to-back home wins over Holy Spirit Prep.

The Lady Knights prevailed 2-1 while the Knights posted a 4-0 victory in the nightcap.

Below is a summary of the action in all three sports:

Baseball

The Knights held off a late rally by John Milledge on Saturday to finish out a sweep of the defending state champions who knocked the Knights out of the playoffs a year ago.

Frederica, the visiting team for Game 2, led 8-4 going into the bottom of the seventh, only to see the Trojans score three runs before it escaped with the victory with the tying run stranded on second.

Thompson, the winning pitcher for Frederica in Game 1, got the save for the Knights.

Starter Eric McCall ended up getting the win after pitching into the fifth. He gave up three earned runs on seven hits while striking out five.

The Knights plated a single run in the second, three in the fourth, four in the fifth and another in the sixth.

The Trojans erased their 4-0 deficit with two runs in the third. Trailing 8-2 after the next half-inning, they proceeded to score a run in the fifth and two in the sixth before nearly keeping their season alive with their rally in the seventh.

The Knights banged out nine hits in the win. Harry Veal had two hits and drove in two runs. Nic Dixon also had two hits and scored three times.

On Friday, the Knights got a complete game from Thompson who allowed three earned runs on seven hits while striking out five and walking one.

John Milledge jumped ahead 2-0 in the first, but the Knights rebounded to take a 4-2 lead and they would open up the game with a five-run fifth to go up 9-2. McCall blasted a two-run homer to score the final two runs in the uprising.

Frederica had 12 hits. Chandler Kicklighter, Deke Jernigan and JT Whaley all had two each for the Knights.

Next up for the Knights is a best-of-3 semifinal series against Tiftarea Academy which swept Gatewood 8-5 and 8-7 in the quarterfinals. The semifinal series is set to open next Friday with Frederica playing at home again. Game times are still to be determined.

Girls Soccer

The Lady Knights were the first of the Frederica teams to reach the semifinal round.

They won their 5:30 p.m. game Friday with a pair of first-half goals and then held off the visitors who scored their lone goal early after halftime.

Frederica’s goals were scored by Bella Swinson and Ashley Burandt.

The Lady Knights will face Deerfield-Windsor in their semifinal next Friday at Mercer University in Macon which is also hosting the Saturday final.

Boys Soccer

The Frederica boys led their game Friday 1-0 at intermission on a goal by Matthew Runyan in the first eight minutes of the match.

The Knights opened up a larger cushion after halftime. Jacob Meyers connected for a score 14 minutes into the second half and banged home another goal just two minutes later to give the Knights a commanding 3-0 advantage.

Shawn Mcllroy punctuated the Frederica win with the team’s final goal in the closing moments.

The Knights will play Fugees Academy in the semifinals on Friday. Their game is also at Mercer, which is hosting the boys final on Saturday as well.