Catholic beats Navarre 7-1 in baseball preseason opener

Navarre High School led Pensacola Catholic 1-0 after five frigid innings Thursday, but the visiting Crusaders batted around in the sixth on their way to a 7-1 preseason baseball win.

Pensacola whipped Milton 11-1 on Wednesday before the Navarre-Catholic nightcap was postponed to Thursday afternoon by rain. Navarre will play Milton at 4 p.m. and the Tigers and Crusaders meet at 7 p.m. tonight.

The Raiders' DeVante Taylor and Jacob Terry combined to pitch a no-hitter through five scoreless innings, but Brandon Passalacqua walked the first two Crusaders he faced in the sixth and left with a two-balls-and-no-strikes count on Catholic's Blake Quillen. Nick Combs relieved Passalacqua and eventually walked Quillen to load the bases. Crusaders' cleanup hitter Greg Ciangiotto singled hard to and took second when Jason Frederick failed to field the ball cleanly. Chase Kiefer and Tanner Halstead scored for Catholic and Quillen scored on a passed ball that sent Ciangiotto to third. Chad Westlake and Cody Henry rapped back-to-back doubles to drive in two more runs.

Brock Secondine relieved Combs and walked Avery Geyer. Cody Henry, who had moved to third on a passed ball, scored the final run of the inning on Joe Kepac's sacrifice fly to right. Secondine got Cooper Jones to smack a grounder at Raider shortstop Kyle Camilli, who tossed to second to force out Geyer for the second out. Secondine struck out Chase Kiefer looking for the final out.

Navarre scored its only run in the third when, with one out, Chris Wheeler reached on an error and stole second base. Camilli lined out to deep center field before consecutive singles by Justin Jordan and Cale Secondine moved Wheeler home. A wild pitch moved the runners to second and third and Cory Catyb walked before Geyer, who had relieved Catholic starter Cody Alling earlier in the inning, struck out Terry to end the Raiders' threat.

Ciangiotto scored the Crusaders' final run in the top of the seventh.