LONGWOOD – Bartow’s third-inning, six-run outburst normally would be enough, but on a hot afternoon against the 20th-ranked team in the nation, No. 1 in Florida, it’s a good thing that the Yellow Jackets added a four-run burst two innings later.
In the end, the Yellow Jackets’ eight-run lead was barely enough as Bartow withstood Doral’s late rally to prevail, 10-8, on Friday afternoon in the semifinals of the 2026 FHSAA Class 6A Softball State Championships at Boombah-Soldiers Creek Park.
The victory puts Bartow back in the state championship game where it will be looking for its 10th state title overall and ninth under Glenn Rutenbar. The Yellow Jackets, ranked No. 38 in the country by MaxPreps, will play No. 25 Pace, the No. 2 team in Class 6A, at 4 p.m. Saturday in the championship game. It’s a rematch of the 2024 6A state championship game that Pace won, 2-0 and a rematch of the 2023 championship game that Bartow won, 5-1.
Doral, of course, was no stranger. Bartow, which lost to Doral, 5-1, in the Kissimmee Klassic earlier this season, is now 3-0 vs. Doral in the state semifinals over the last four seasons. None of the other games looked like this.
Bartow led 10-4 going into the final inning, a seemingly insurmountable lead. However, with one run already in, two runners on and Bartow pitcher Ryleigh Knowlton wearing down, Pace got back-to-back singles followed by Melanie Sweet’s triple. Sweet then scored on a sacrifice fly and suddenly it was a two-run game.
Knowlton, however, got the next better to fly out to right and the game was over.
“It’s Doral, they’re pretty good,” Bartow center fielder Emma Huffman said. “I could understand that they could come back at any moment. That’s why all of us had to lock in.”
It was a much different game for the first five innings. Bartow had plenty of hits and got diving catches on pop-ups by corner infielders Ava Haygood and Alyssa Hillman.
Bartow took command of the game by sending 11 batters to the plate in the third inning. Mia Gomez singled and was bunted to second by Lexi Hayford. Emma Huffman’s single was the first of five consecutive hits.
Niamah Johnson provided the first run-scoring hit. Johnson broke out of a 1-for-12 slump in the regional semifinals and is now 4-for-10 with five RBIs in her last three games. Her two-run double began the scoring.
“It felt good off the bat,” Johnson said. “When I was struggling, I was just trying to do something to help my team and get the win.”
Bartow finished with seven hits in the inning.
Doral got two back in the fourth inning, helped by a Bartow error, but the Yellow Jackets’ offense wasn’t finished.
After Lexi Hayford walked with the bases loaded, Huffman ripped a two-run double, and the final run scored on a Doral error. Huffman finished 2-for-5. Kowlton helped her own cause with a pair of hits and an RBI as Bartow finished with 11 hits.
“We prepared so much,” Huffman said. “We wrote down every single little thing about that pitcher, and we studied her and we studied her pitches, her bad pitches, and we just adjusted exactly to what she was going to throw us instead of just letting her eat us up.”
Doral got two runs in the sixth before its seventh-inning rally, but the Yellow Jackets never lost faith.
“I already knew that Ryleigh could pull it through, so we just took one out at a time and just get the win,” Johnson said.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Bartow erupts for 10 runs then holds on against Doral in 6A state semis
Reporting by Roy Fuoco, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
