PALM BAY — Bayside, fresh off capturing the district championship last week, returned home to host Sebastian River on Thursday, May 7, in the Class 5A, Region 4 quarterfinals.
The two sides met for the second time in a week after the Bears won at Sebastian River in extras to earn the right to host the regional quarterfinal as the No. 6 seed.
Bayside missed an early opportunity at a big inning, opening the door for Sebastian River to score the final 4 runs of the game to defeat Bayside 5-1.
“We knew it was going to be tough. The last game we played was against them. Both games this year went eight innings,” Bayside head coach Brandon Sherrill said. “They made more plays than we did. That’s the bottom line. Proud of our girls. Just fell short.”
The Sharks scored in the top of the first inning, but Bayside answered on an RBI single by freshman Bella Tenta. Bayside loaded the bases with nobody out, but Sebastian River pitcher Gabrielle Espich limited the damage to one after a force out at home plate, a strikeout and a ground out.
Espich went on to retire 13 straight Bear hitters. She allowed two singles in the fifth, but both runners were thrown out on a double play.
“That broke us a little bit because bases loaded, nobody out and we can only get one. That was tough,” Sherrill said. “Then we go into the second inning after that, a couple mistakes, a couple seeing-eye singles and opens the game up a little bit.”
Sebastian River broke the tie with 3 runs in the second inning against Bayside pitcher Emily Lowe. Sharks sophomore Payge Hunter hit an RBI single to make it 2-1. After an intentional walk with 2 outs, junior Alexa Pittman came up with the clutch 2-run single to make it 4-1.
Lowe allowed a 2-out solo home run to freshman Kendra Powers in the fifth in her final batter faced. The junior pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowing five runs, two earned, on seven hits.
“She (Lowe) threw well. The defense kind of had some snafus,” Sherrill said. “They didn’t. They only hit a couple balls hard on her. They just had the timely hits that we did not have.”
Bayside entered the postseason on a 4-game losing streak. However, the young Bears squad turned things around in the district tournament with 3 wins in 4 days to earn a spot in the state playoffs.
“It’s huge. Obviously, we had a lot of adversity,” Sherrill said. “We just didn’t play well when we needed to, but we were able to kind of pick up the missing pieces. We played well against Westwood and then Legacy, who was another really good team. We were playing good ball. Just not (Thursday).”
Bayside ends the season with a 14-10 record. The nucleus of the roster returns next season with only two seniors graduating.
“There’s a lot of ups and downs. Our youth kind of showed at times,” Sherrill said. “Overall, I’m proud of the girls. They gave everything they had and I couldn’t be more proud.”
Sebastian River (16-6) 130 010 0 – 5 9 0
Bayside (14-10) 100 000 0 – 1 5 1
Class 5A, Region 4
No. 1 Pembroke Pines Charter 10, No. 8 Heritage 0
The Panthers mustered 1 hit and struck out 14 times against PPC pitcher Destiney Ortega. PPC scored 3 runs in the first inning and 7 runs in the third inning.
Heritage completes the season with a 5-14 record.
Heritage (5-14) 000 00 – 0 1 2
Pembroke Pines Charter (19-8) 307 0X – 10 11 0
Class 6A, Region 2
No. 2 Melbourne 2, No. 7 Oviedo 0
Melbourne freshman Addison Balavender hurled a 1-hit shutout, striking out 14 Oviedo hitters.
The Bulldogs scored 1 run in the first and third innings to provide Balavender enough run support. Junior Madison Rider scored on a double play in the first and junior Layna Ayala singled home Rider in the third.
Melbourne advances to the regional semifinals to host No. 3 Bloomingdale on Tuesday.
Oviedo (9-14) 000 000 0 – 0 1 2
Melbourne (26-1) 101 000 X – 2 4 0
No. 3 Bloomingdale 9, No. 6 Viera 0
Bloomingdale threw a combined 3-hit shutout with the Bulls scoring 2 runs in the first, 5 runs in the third and 2 runs in the fourth.
Viera ends the season with a 14-12 record.
Viera (14-12) 000 000 0 – 0 3 1
Bloomingdale (19-8) 205 200 X – 9 13 1
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Bayside softball falls in regional quarterfinals, Melbourne moves on
Reporting by Sam Ficarro, Florida Today / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
