By Kyle Coppola
Lake Minneola High School Baseball Team Wins District Championship
MINNEOLA, Fla. — Lake Minneola High School continued its district dominance Thursday night, capturing its sixth consecutive Class 6A District 5 championship with a convincing 7-1 victory over cross-county rival South Lake High.
The Hawks (20-7) shook off a shaky start after South Lake’s Collin Weaver crossed home plate in the first inning to give the Eagles an early 1-0 lead. But that would be the only run South Lake would score as Lake Minneola ace Brady Montrowl settled in and delivered a masterful performance on the mound.
Montrowl struck out 10 batters across six innings of work, allowing just one hit and one run to shut down any hopes of an upset. The dominant outing pushed Montrowl’s season total to 77 strikeouts.
(Lake Minneola seniors stand together. All these seniors have never lost a district championship game playing for Lake Minneola. An impressive feat.)
Lake Minneola’s offense caught fire in the third inning. Junior Fabian Antonsanti broke the game open with a bases-clearing double, driving in two runs before later scoring himself. Shortly after, slugger Jacob Cali launched a towering home run to left field, bringing in three more runs to cap off a five-run frame that flipped the momentum decisively in favor of the Hawks.
By the fifth inning, Lake Minneola was firmly in control with a 7-1 lead.
(Brady Montrowl “right” and Tristan Closson “left”. Montrowl has 77 strikeouts this year and Closson who is the catcher is a big reason for the success.)
Cali, who also made his mark from the mound, came in as a closer in the top of the seventh and struck out all three batters he faced to slam the door on South Lake’s comeback bid. Widely regarded as one of Lake County’s top relievers, Cali’s dominance sealed the Hawks’ championship victory.
With the win, Lake Minneola advances to the FHSAA Class 6A State Regional Quarterfinal. Meanwhile, South Lake will await a potential At-Large bid into the regional playoffs when the tournament field is announced this weekend.
Congratulations to the Lake Minneola High Hawks!
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
