(Courtesy of Academy at the Lakes)
Brooke Blankenship, an eighth-grade shortstop at Academy at the Lakes, has verbally committed to play softball at Florida State University.
Through 20 games this season, Blankenship is batting .542, with five home runs and 31 RBIs and 36 runs scored. Blankenship joined the Wildcats varsity team last year, as a seventh grader.
Dade City native Mike Penix, a rising senior quarterback at Tampa Bay Tech, has verbally committed to play football at the University of Tennessee.
Penix, who transferred from Pasco High School after the 2015 season, is ranked as one of the nation’s top 25 pro-style quarterbacks for the Class of 2018, according to multiple recruiting outlets.
The 6-foot-1, 182-pound left-hander chose Tennessee over offers from, among others, Arizona, Oregon, Rutgers and South Florida.
Last season, Penix threw for 2,078 yards, 31 touchdowns with just one interception; he completed 56 percent of his passes.
