LONGWOOD — Let’s run it back, Niceville and Winter Springs softball.
A year after the two powerhouses faced off in a 4-3 thriller that went the way of the Bears, the pair is back in the 5A state title game and set to face off Saturday at 1 p.m. (EDT) at Boombah-Soldiers Creek Park. The top-seeded Eagles beat fourth-seeded Braden River 2-1 in the first semifinal Friday, while the second-seeded Bears beat third-seeded Pembroke Pines Charter 4-0 in the afternoon game.
“They’re loaded,” Niceville skipper Danny Hensley said of Winter Springs. “They hit it from top to bottom, got a good pitcher with a drop ball, curve ball, all-speed pitch who can hit her location good. We watched them for four, five inning a while ago and they look even better this year than last year.
“It’ll take our A-game to beat them.”
One game separates Winter Springs from a repeat. One game separates Niceville from redemption . Let’s see how the teams compare on paper.
Strength of Schedule: Niceville’s 13.67 SOS is No. 1 in the state, and the Eagles are 24-7. Winter Springs is 23-6 with the fourth-best SOS, 12.01. Why is this important? Braden River’s stats popped off the page but its strength of schedule was 43rd of 5A teams. The gap between Niceville and Winter Springs is negligible.
Postseason run: Their paths through regionals and the Final 4 have been wildly different. Winter Springs has a 34-0 run differential with no stressful wins, including a 5-0 region title over third-ranked Gainesville and a 12-0 region semifinal victory over eighth-ranked Sebring. Niceville has a 16-8 run differential with back-to-back one-run wins, including an extra-inning 5-4 victory over fourth-ranked Chiles for the Region 1 title.
History in state championship: This’ll be the seventh trip to the title game for Niceville, who is 1-5 with its lone state championship coming in 2011. This’ll be the fifth state title trip for the defending champs, who enter 2-2 at this stage.
Location: Soldiers Creek Park is within a 15-minute drive of campus for Winter Springs, whose players are no doubt sleeping in their home beds. Niceville, meanwhile, has traveled 340 miles southeast after hosting the entire regional tournament.
Lineup: Niceville has improved drastically in every hitting metric from last year, batting a collective .304 (up 30 points from last year) with a .377 on-base percentage (up 70 points from last year), 19 homers and 6.7 runs per game. Five Niceville batters are hitting .320 or better with leadoff Quinn Graham the table setter (.534 OBP, 36 runs, 15/9 BB:K ratio) and the power supplied by Chloe Bailey’s six homers and 33 RBIs and three homers each from Anabelle Shackelford (24 RBIs), Briana Noles (20 RBIs) and Sydney Hann.
A year after tearing the cover off the ball for a collective .357 average and 24 homers, the Bears are hitting .331 with 18 homers, 80 extra-base hits, 70 stolen bases and 6.9 runs per game. Speedster Katelyn Wassey is getting on base at a .408 batting clip with 22 stolen bases and a team-leading 25 runs, Lauren Daugherty has a team-best six homers, 33 RBIs and 16 extra-base hits while batting .402, and Abigail Hooper has a team-leading .432 batting average with 25 runs, 24 RBIs and 14 doubles.
Pitching: Tiffany Seemann extended her postseason scoreless streak to 20 innings Friday, limiting Pembroke Pines to three hits and a walk while striking out three. The right-hander’s not a big swing-and-miss pitcher with just 70 strikeouts in 105 1/3 innings, but she’s missing barrels with her offspeed stuff to the tune of a 1.20 ERA and .204 batting average against.
Right-hander Bailey is a swing-and-miss ace. She has 46 strikeouts over 29 innings since regions began and has allowed just five earned runs during that span, lowering her ERA to 1.30 and improving her record to 20-6. She has 244 strikeouts in 166 2/3 innings on the season and is holding hitters to a .150 batting average.
Defense: The Bears have committed just 20 errors in 29 games for a .962 fielding percentage, while Niceville looked shaky Friday and has 51 errors in 31 games and a .928 fielding percentage.
This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Niceville-Winter Springs softball set for rematch in 5A title game
Reporting by Seth Stringer, Northwest Florida Daily News / Northwest Florida Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
