Hernando High baseball advances with 10-1 win, honors longtime supporter

Hernando High did more than finish off The Villages Charter School. The Leopards turned a regional semifinal into a statement, rolling to a 10-1 victory at Emerson Field and advancing with the kind of depth, pitching and purpose that can carry a team deeper into May.

The series-clinching win on Sunday, May 4, completed Hernando’s Class 3A-Region 2 semifinal and sent the third-seeded Leopards onward in the 2026 Florida High School Athletic Association postseason, where both regional semifinals and regional finals are best-of-three series. Hernando, now 23-6, has won 17 of its last 21 games and reached its third straight Elite Eight, a run that underscores how high the ceiling has become for Tim Sims’ group.

The bracket now points toward South Sumter High School, which beat North Marion High School in the other regional semifinal. A series win there would give Hernando back-to-back Final Four berths for the first time in school history, a milestone that now feels within reach because the Leopards handled the pressure of a semifinal series with authority.

That larger postseason charge was shaped by a loss that never showed up in the box score. Ed Ritter, a longtime supporter of Hernando baseball, a longtime coach in the Hernando Youth League and the father of former Hernando High pitcher Travis Ritter, had planned to attend the game. Sims said Ritter called on Saturday to confirm the Sunday start time, and Sims learned the next morning that Ritter had died. Hernando dedicated the game to him, and Sims said the victory was for Ritter because of everything he had done for baseball and softball in Brooksville over many years.

The tone for the series had already been set two nights earlier by Cadyn Williams. The senior left-hander, committed to South Florida State College in Avon Park, threw a seven-inning complete game in Hernando’s 5-1 Game 1 win on Friday night. Williams allowed one run on two hits, struck out five and needed 87 pitches to improve to 5-2, giving Sims the kind of start that preserved pitching depth for the rest of the series. Sims called Williams outstanding and said it was the right move in Game 1.

By the end of Sunday, Hernando had not only advanced but also reinforced what this postseason group can be. MaxPreps listed the Leopards at No. 73 in Florida and No. 8 in Class 3A after the win, with The Villages Charter finishing at 16-12. The state championship event is scheduled for May 13-20 at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, and Hernando has positioned itself to keep playing well into that stretch.