A roundup of Sarasota and Manatee regional softball playoff games played the week of May 11.
REGIONAL SEMIFINALS
Region 7A-3
Sarasota head coach Andrew Jensen doesn’t like to coach his team on Mondays.
Sure, he’s joking, but during practice on Monday, May 11, his players were “cranky” and feeling tired. But despite the more lethargic practice, Jensen saw them find new energy on Tuesday, May 12. No. 2 seed Sarasota defeated No. 3 Newsome 5-2 in the Class 7A-Region 3 semifinal, advancing to the regional final. The Sailors will play the winner of No. 1 East Ridge and No. 4 Venice being played Wednesday, May 13.
It’s something they’ve been doing all season — finding new ways to win as their long season continues.
“It just impresses me that when it comes time for the game, it’s like a switch that they flip, and they’re just a resilient group of girls,” Jensen said. “And I’m just extremely proud of them.”
Senior Madison Culbertson went 2-for-2 with two doubles and a walk, helping Sarasota score the insurance run in the fifth. Junior Jade Hendrickson also added a double, going 1-for-3, while junior Gemma Mulhollen controlled things on the mound. She struck out four batters in seven innings, allowing eight hits and three walks.
In the first, senior third baseman Ashlan Guengerich hit an RBI double to right field, sending junior Olivia Lockhart home. Then, senior Gia DePastino hit a sac-fly to right, allowing senior Gianna Williams to score.
The Sailors had a 3-0 advantage entering the second.
“My biggest thing is when we go up three early, my concern is, do we take our foot off the gas pedal?” Jensen said. “And it seems like when they came back and responded, we then responded…everybody’s a little bit different in their own way, and somehow we gel together to get the job done.”
After a silent three innings, Newsome (20-9) broke through in the fifth. Sophomore Ashley Nordberg hit a double to the fence, allowing senior Sarai Nicholas to score.
Leading 3-1, Sarasota (22-5) worked to stop the bleeding during an inning that could’ve been worse.
“It’s little things throughout the course of the game,” Jensen said. ‘We have so many different ways we can win a ball game. We can win it with Gemma pitching. We can win it with our defense. And then today, we knew going into the game, if we can get five runs, there’s a really, really, really good chance we’re going to win that game with our pitching.”
But Sarasota responded. In the bottom of the frame with two outs, Hendrickson doubled to the warning track. Then, Culbertson followed with an RBI double to left center. Heading into the sixth, Sarasota led 5-1.
And while Newsome earned one more in the sixth, Mulhollen held the Wolves in the top of the seventh, pushing her team to the regional final.
“She’s the true definition of a workhorse,” Jensen said about Mulhollen, later adding, “We had to ride with our workhorse.”
As Sarasota’s run continues with a regional final on Thursday, Jensen expects his players to keep finding that energy and different ways to win.
— Emma Moon
Region 6A-3
Parrish Community 3, Mitchell 1: Emmaline Van Beck of Parrish Community High (17-5-1) pitched herself out of a seventh-inning jam to preserve a 3-1 victory over Mitchell on Tuesday night, May 12, in a Class 6A-Region 3 semifinal game.
Trailing 3-1 in the top of the seventh, the Mustangs (19-10) loaded the bases with just one out. But Van Beck was up to the task, getting a fly-ball out and recording her sixth and final strikeout of the game with the leading run on first base.
“I knew we could get it done,” said Van Beck, who entered the game with a slick 1.42 earned run average. “I had enough confidence on the mound and enough confidence in the defense that we would get it done.”
After giving up a leadoff single to start the game, Van Beck kept the team from New Port Richey hitless until allowing a leadoff double in the top of the fifth, when the Mustangs pushed across a run on a ground-ball out. The junior right-hander allowed four hits and issued two walks.
“It’s really important to stay calm on the mound,” Van Beck said. “Just take it one batter at a time.”
The Bulls were aggressive at the plate, hitting early in counts and laying down three successful sacrifice bunts.
“They did a good job with the plan,” Bulls head coach Erin Spivey said. “We try to score every inning. They followed through and made the adjustments at the plate.”
Although Parrish didn’t score every inning, the Bulls got hits in every inning except the bottom of the sixth. Junior catcher Cassidy Ott doubled home junior Kyndal France, who led off the bottom of the first with a single, for the game’s first run.
Parrish made it 2-0 in the fourth when Ainsley McCoy, pinch-running for Van Beck who had doubled, scored on an error.
Junior second baseman Alysa Jones, who entered the game with a sizzling .507 batting average, singled in an insurance run in the fifth.
The victory puts the Bulls in position to claim their fourth consecutive region championship. They will host the region final on Thursday night at 7 p.m. Parrish will play either Tarpon Springs East Lake (21-4) or Land O Lakes (24-4). After getting rained out on Tuesday, those two teams will play on Wednesday, May 13.
“We held the lead for the whole game, but that was a stressful situation in the seventh inning,” Ott said. “I knew Emmaline would get the job done. If they were going to put the ball in play, our defense would be there. After winning this game, it’s just a great day to be a Parrish Bull.”
— Jim Brockman
Region 5A-3
Braden River 4, Fort Myers 3: Freshman Cady Jones’ game-winning, two-run double was the exclamation point, making her the hero of the game for Braden River over Fort Myers.
In the end, the second-seeded Pirates came from behind and defeated the No. 6 Green Wave 4-3 in the regional semifinals on Tuesday, May 12. The Pirates will take on No. 5 seed Gulf Coast, who upset No. 1 seed North Fort Myers 8-0.
“This team has no quit,” said Braden River head coach Keith Jans, whose team improved to 22-3. “It doesn’t matter what the score is and what inning it is, they never give up. This team is amazing and continues to fight for each other. I’m so proud of them right now.”
“This was a great team with a great culture.” said Fort Myers head coach Dan Mills, who team finsihed 15-11. “I love this team, and we’re sad that we can’t spend more time together. It starts with building a culture, making sure to write things in the right mindset and just get back to work. This was a special group, and it’s sad that the journey ended today.”
For the first four innings, the game was a pitcher’s duel between the Pirates’ lone senior Kaydence Evans and Green Wave sophomore Lolly Lane. The pitchers combined for six strikeouts (four from Lane) and five hits (four from Fort Myers).
The Green Wave got on the scoreboard first in the fifth inning. After senior Faith Fazzone reached on a fielding error and senior Kate Coakley hit a single, junior Amira Peterson sent a three-run homer to left for her seventh of the season, putting Fort Myers up 3-0.
After being held scoreless in the bottom half of the fifth, Braden River began their rally in the bottom of the sixth, starting with a leadoff walk from junior Leighton Paul and freshman Cooper Jones getting hit by a pitch. After freshman Evelyn Paul reached first on a fielder’s choice to move Leighton to third, freshman Sarai Castro reached first on a fielding error, allowing Leighton to score the Pirates’ first run. Evans cut the deficit to 3-2 after hitting an RBI double to bring in Evelyn before freshman Ansley Schneider came in as a courtesy runner.
Following freshman Eva Martinez getting hit by a pitch to load the bases, Mills took out Lane and sent senior Afton Jessogne to the mound. After Jessogne got one out, Cady Jones hit a double to left, bringing in Castro and Schneider to make it 4-3 Braden River.
“I was super pumped and knew my team was there,” said Cady Jones of the hit. “I knew my teammates had my back, and I could feel them from the dugout as well as the fans cheering me on. Before I went up to the plate, I said a little prayer for myself and knew I got a good hit. It wasn’t a great hit, but it worked, and I thank God that it happened.”
“It was amazing to see Cady get those runs in for us,” said Jans.
Evans got into a brief jam after giving up back-to-back one-out singles at the top of the seventh, but with the defense behind her, Evans got the last two outs to seal the victory for the Pirates.
Evans improved to 15-3 after throwing a complete game, allowing nine hits with two strikeouts. She was also 1-for-2 at the plate with an RBI.
Coakley led the way in hitting for Fort Myers after going 3-for-4 with a run, while Peterson led the way offensively, going 2-for-4 with a home run and three RBI.
— Patrick Clines
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Softball Regionals: Sarasota, Parrish, Braden River advance to finals
Reporting by Emma Moon, Sarasota Herald-Tribune / Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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