Plant City High baseball seniors miss graduation for state championship

Missing a milestone to support their team, high school baseball players in the state missed out on a big moment to compete in a quest to fulfill another. But they were not alone.

Plant City High School baseball players skipped their graduation to play in a championship game at Hammond Stadium in south Fort Myers Thursday night.

“Plant City’s graduation is tonight. The boys are missing graduation,” Colton Miller said. “So we are out here supporting them.”

About a half dozen of the baseball player’s friends cheered on their team in their caps and gowns.

“It’s our graduation night, so we wanted to make it special,” Miller said.

And their team couldn’t be happier to see them in the crowd.

“The fact that they would miss their graduation to watch us play is something special,” Grant Gifford said.

Also with smiles across their faces were the moms who helped their seniors reach this day.

“This is their last time that they’d be on the field together,” April Messick said. “I feel like today they’re not crossing the stage but crossing the plate.”

For the players, it’s the only way they wanted to go out. But it’s also not the end of some of their individual playing careers, since all the seniors at Plant City are heading to college to continue playing baseball.

“I’d so much rather be out here in a baseball field where I grew up with my best friends than be at graduation sitting around,” Parker Messick said.