- May 23, 2025
Jacob Imhoff takes a cut. Imhoff scored two runs in the Sandcrabs' 10-0 win on April 24. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Brody Harris pitched a six-inning shutout. Harris has not allowed a run in 10 consecutive innings. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Wrigley Zweifel touches home plate in the second inning, but this run didn't count on the third out in the inning. Zweifel went 3-for-3 and drove in four runs in the Sandcrabs' 10-0 win. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Noah Katsikos takes a low, inside pitch against Wesley Chapel on April 24. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Sandcrabs huddle up after their 10-0 victory over Wesley Chapel on April 24. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze freshman Sam Hebert swings at a pitch against Wesley Chapel on April 24. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Can a dairy product be a mascot? Blue cheese has inspired the Sandcrabs during their stretch drive. Now it's on a T-shirt. Coach Jeff Lemon holds up the shirt: "Now serving L's with a side of blue cheese." Photo by Brent Woronoff
Seabreeze’s baseball players set a lofty goal at the start of the season. Along the way, they grew together as they latched on to an unusual rallying cry and inspired a group of “left field crazies.”
The season came to an end on Saturday, April 26, with a 6-2 loss at Wesley Chapel in the final game of the best-of-three Region 2-5A quarterfinal series.
The Sandcrabs won eight of their final 12 games to finish with a 17-13 record. They won their two district tournament games by a combined score of 28-1. They hosted the first two games against Wesley Chapel, losing a classic pitching duel 1-0 on April 23 and crushing the Wildcats 10-0 in Game 2 on April 24 before falling on the road in Game 3.
“It was a special season from the start,” Seabreeze coach Jeff Lemon said. “We had quite a lot of experience coming back from last year’s team, and the pieces fell into place at the right time. It made the game fun to watch.”
Senior third baseman Ruston Hurley told the team at the beginning of the season that he would like his final year with the Sandcrabs to be the winningest team in Seabreeze history. “We told them, if you want to do it, you’ll have to play baseball the Seabreeze way,” Lemon said.
The team had its struggles, at one point losing four in a row to fall to 10-9 on March 26. After that, the Sandcrabs' pitching and hitting started to come together.
“This is probably the closest team we’ve had in my seven years here,” Lemon said. “They were simply enjoying competing every day together.”
When Tommy Hayes said his curveball was crumbling like blue cheese, the team found a catchphrase.
After putting up seven runs in the fifth inning in the 10-0 win over Wesley Chapel, pitcher Brody Harris said it was “blue cheese from there.”
“It’s a versatile term,” Harris added.
They even had T-shirts made with a cartoon crab wearing a chef’s hat and holding a bowl of stinky cheese under a capital L. The T-shirt read, “Now serving L’s with a side of blue cheese.”
Lemon said the crowd at the game was the largest he has seen at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex.
“It felt like there were 1,000 people out there,” he said.
It’s a versatile term.
— BRODY HARRIS on the Sandcrabs' blue cheese catchphrase.
From their two district tournament games to the two home regional games, the Sports Complex crowd got larger and larger.
The crowd outside the stadium in left field, where parents and students stood, some on the beds of pickup trucks, also grew.
“The left-field crazies have been our good luck charm since we started winning in the (post season),” said Harris, who threw his second consecutive shutout in the 10-0 win. “They just lined up out there recently with that many people. There used to be a tinier section of left field crazies, but it's been growing after each W.”
After the win over Belleview in the district championship game on April 17 and again after the win over Wesley Chapel, Harris and fellow senior Jake Deising did backflips for the crazies.
Wesley Chapel left-hander Aiden Nguyen pitched a masterpiece in Game 1 of the regional quarterfinal, and Hayes hung with him. The Wildcats scored the only run of the game in the first inning on a grounder to shortstop with runners on second and third.
“We had our infield back,” Lemon said. “As a coach, I'm kicking myself because in that situation, if hindsight was 20-20, we would have had the infield in, and that run would have never scored. But in the game of baseball you’ve got to score one to win anyway, so we figured early in the game we’d keep the infield back, and (batter Cole Ranchel) did his job.”
Hayes gave up one run on four hits in six innings. Nguyen pitched a complete-game one-hitter with 13 strikeouts.
“That young man had his stuff working,” Lemon said. “Tommy went toe-toe with him, pitched his tail off and kept us in the ball game. He did everything we could ask as far as giving us an opportunity to win late in the game. It just didn't happen.”
But the Sandcrabs bats got back on track in Game 2 with 10 hits, including three by sophomore Wrigley Zweifel, who drove in four runs. Zweifel hit two triples and a double. The second triple went under the center fielder’s glove with the bases loaded in the fifth.
“We regrouped and just got it going again,” Zweifel said. “I was just very focused and locked in on everything, seeing everything well.”
In Game 3 at Wesley Chapel, the Sandcrabs committed three errors and gave up four unearned runs. Wildcats starter Chase Fleming scattered six hits.
The Florida High School Athletic Association changed the regional playoff format this year from single games to best-of-three series, to put a premium on pitching depth. But after losing the opener, the Sandcrabs were forced to send Harris to the mound in Game 2, instead of saving him for the deciding game.
Seabreeze loses senior position starters Hurley, Deising and Noah Katsikos as well as pitchers Harris, Parker Bauknecht, Jack Barron and Malachi Morgan.
“We have players to replace,” Lemon said. “But we’re confident we’re not going to miss a beat, and if anything we’ll come back stronger next year.”
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