Dillon Jones pitching.

The Wildcat baseball team defeated Orange Park 6-2 on February 13 as freshmen Jacob Milton pitch­­ed four and a half innings and earned his first varsity win.

Milton didn’t give up an earned run in his time on the mound.

John Lambright led the attack with three hits, Ethan Wilkerson and Chris Waddell each added two run doubles, and Hunter Bell added an RBI single.

The boys swung their way to an encouraging season start last week with a pair of home wins over Middleburg and Clay County.

Jacob Milton got the 10-6 win against the Broncos on February 7, throwing three innings of scoreless baseball. Dillon Jones, Jared Crews and Hunter Hanks finished up on the mound. Offensively, Hanks, Kyle Horne and Chris Waddell all had RBI singles.

The line graph above shows the football team's average GPA from the fall of 2010 through the fall of 2011.

BCHS football coach Ryan Sulkowski released his fall academic report last week showing large gains for his team during the first semester of the 2011-12 school year.

The team’s average GPA increased from a 2.69 last spring to 2.73 this fall. Football players collected 171 As, 168 Bs, 142 Cs and only 48 Ds and 27 Fs during the semester.

Sulkowski was very pleased with the improvements.

“As a football program we pulled together as a staff and made a commitment to improving the academics here at Baker County High School,” said the coach. “When I arrived the academic situation was awful in regards to our football student athletes and that was something that I knew we needed to immediately put an emphasis on.”

Sulkowski says that the coaching staff stresses academics on a regular basis. “These young men need to know that someone is constantly monitoring their academic progress. On a daily basis we have constant contact with about 8 percent of our student body, which is our football team. When they hear about it every day it sinks in and I believe that is where we are now,” he said.

He is particularly proud of the drop in ineligible players. Only two players were ineligible this school year, a drop from a two-year high of 15 in spring 2010.

Football players are coming to school more, averaging only 3.58 days absent.

The Wildcats girls weightlifting team competed at St. Augustine High School this past weekend in the final state qualifier. The top three finishers in each weight class qualify for the FHSAA state finals in Kissimmee on February 11. The Wildcats qualified three lifters for the state meet.

In the 139-pound class was Kristian Burnham, who finished second with a 130-pound bench press and 140-pound clean and jerk.

In the 169-pound class was Tiffany Braddy, who finished third with a school record 310-pound total. Braddy lifted 170 pounds in the clean and jerk and 140 pounds in the bench press.

The Lady Wildcats basketball team got a last second basket from Tianna Raysor to snatch a 54-52 victory on the road at Yulee on January 23.

The win helped ease the pain of losses to West Nassau and Bishop Kenny earlier in the month.

Raysor hit a jump shot with 1.5 seconds left on the clock to give BCHS a 53-52 lead and added to it by sinking a free throw attempt to end the game.

The Wildcats got a big offensive effort from Chelsey Ruise, who had 28 points that night. Defensively, Niesha Givens was all over the court, blocking shots and making steals that set up baskets on the offensive end.

Yulee jumped out to an early lead with 8 points from center Jalisa Thompson. But Ruise answered with 10 points of her own in the first period. The Cats erased an early deficit to lead 25-23 at the half.

They kept the lead through the third period but Yulee stormed back near the end of the game and led by a point with seconds remaining. Raysor got free for a shot and was fouled in the attempt giving the Wildcats the 2-point win.

Ruise led all scorers with 28 and Givens had 6 points.