SFC notebook: Saints eye next level

As the early signing period for baseball approaches, a trio of former Buchholz High School and current Santa Fe College standouts are scoping out their futures.

Jardian Thomas, Brett Bozeman and Morgan McKinney are the former Bobcats, who have either chosen a college destination or are in the process of finding a home at a four-year school.

Bozeman, SFC’s catcher, committed to Mississippi State in September and is set to sign, while Thomas, an outfielder who hit .377 last season, is set to sign with Florida Southern, according to SFC baseball coach Johnny Wiggs.

McKinney, meanwhile, will visit Western Carolina this weekend.

During the fall, the left-hander has allowed one hit and no runs in 16 innings of work to go along with 18 strikeouts.

GETTING DEFENSIVE: Coming into the season, Santa Fe men’s basketball coach Chris Mowry was hoping his team would be able to defend when it mattered most.

Mowry got a good showing early, as the Saints held Coastal Georgia’s Antonio Tribble, a second-team preseason NJCAA All-American, to just eight points in a 77-64 win in last week’s Cabot Lodge Shootout.

Marlon Rivera, Santa Fe’s lone returning starter, had the assignment of guarding Tribble and his defense carried over to the rest of the team.

“(Rivera) was the big reason why we were able to slow down (Tribble),” Mowry said. “We did a good job individually and collectively with our defense for the first 35 minutes of that game.”

STRONG FALL: Heading into this weekend, the Santa Fe baseball team had produced a 17-1 record, but more importantly was 5-0 against JUCO programs and outscored their foes 28-2 in those contests.

“We played our best against better competition,” said Wiggs, whose team had just six players back from last year’s national runner-up team.

In all, the Saints have 29 new faces on their roster, but things have came together and Wiggs cited a doubleheader sweep of St. Petersburg College, SFC’s victim in the opening round of last season’s state tournament, as being a highlight of the fall.

“We started out taking baby steps this fall,” Wiggs said. “It’s been good for us. We’ve had a chance to evaluate everyone and we’ve been able to play basically the entire roster each game.”

NICE DEBUT: Former Gainesville standout Anthony Nwadigo’s first college game went quite well.

The 6-foot-2 freshman had 13 points in just 18 minutes against Coastal Georgia, after sitting SFC’s opener due to illness.

“That was a pretty good first college game for him,” Mowry said.

Branimir Mikulic (6-foot-7), Iran Hollis (6-5), Mike Washington (6-7), Altavious Carter (6-5) and UCF transfer Chris Baez (6-5) were among the other newcomers cited by Mowry for strong play in the early season.

BIG WIN: Ever since Central Florida Community College won the FCCAA state title in 1997, the Panhandle Conference has had a lock on the state title.

The SFC women’s basketball team hopes to change that this season and got off to a good start with a 70-66 road win over fifth-ranked Tallahassee, a Panhandle program.

Lanita Bartley, one of three returning starters for the Saints, finished with a game-high 25 points.

The sophomore point guard also sank 12-of-14 free throws in the win for seventh-ranked SFC.

SOFTBALL UPDATE: Entering the weekend, the SFC softball team had compiled a 17-4 record over the course of the fall.

Two of those losses for the Saints came against the University of Florida.

In the last matchup with the Gators this past Thursday, Venica Brown clubbed a three-run homer to give SFC an early 3-0 lead, but it couldn’t hold on from there.

SFC got a strong pitching performance from freshman pitcher Colena Lazar in SFC’s first meeting with Florida.

Lazar, a Dade City Pasco product, held the Gators hitless for 5 1/3 innings, before UF broke through for a 3-0 win.