Friday featured two huge contests for area teams, including a clash between Pace and Navarre softball in the Region 1-6A final. Keep reading for a recap of all the action.
Softball
Region 1-6A final
No. 1 Pace 11, No. 3 Navarre 0 (Five innings)
Patriots senior Britten Kettler called it the biggest bat flip of her career, and there was good reason for it. Her three-run bomb to left field in the bottom of the fourth set a new Pace single season team record for home runs with 45. More importantly, it put the game into mercy rule territory and put the Patriots on the verge of a sixth straight Final Four, with Kettler getting ready to head to her third.
An accomplishment Pace (25-4) doesn’t take for granted, even if the rest of its region might at this point. The Patriots are bound for Boombah Soldiers Creek Park again, looking to avenge last year’s state runner-up finish.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Kettler said. “Just knowing that three years and basically three different teams are able to do it…it’s really cool to be able to.”
For Pace, every Final Four team is different. This one still has the incredible right arm of junior Hannah DeMarcus, who struck out six while allowing four hits and two walks in her 15th shutout this season.
But the Patriots lineup may not have the names bound for high-major programs like Jayden Heavener and Shelby McKenzie from the 2024 team, with only one currently committed to an NCAA Division I program. They make up for it with a deep lineup that can do damage at any spot.
All but two in the lineup recorded hits on Friday night. After escaping Navarre (15-11) in the District 1-6A championship on April 30, Pace knew it needed to come in ready to go.
Kamryn Pierce led off the bottom of the first with a single to center, then came around to score on a Kylie Reed single.
The Patriots four run bottom of the third started with a leadoff walk from No. 9 hitter Laila Loomis, who would score on Gracie Ueberroth’s single to left. Ashley Pickard followed with a two-run single before scoring on a Haley Olivet single later in the inning to push the Patriots lead to 5-0.
Loomis started a rally again in the next inning, bunting down the third-base line and reaching first base as the opening domino in a six-run bottom of the fourth. Loomis would score on Ueberroth’s double, then Reed drove in two more. Kettler’s record-setting blast allowed DeMarcus to end the game in the top of the fifth.
“When you score a couople of runs people feel like they’re obligated,” Pace head coach Lexi Alexander said. “They have to get on base, they have to score runs. And so when we take that pressure off ourselves, we can relax a little bit, swing more freely.”
Boombah-Soldiers Creek Park was a new experience for Pace last year, but now the Patriots are looking to establish their own traditions again at another Final Four venue. That includes a trip to Disney Springs mall and Tropical Smoothie Cafe before games.
But it also involves leaving Longwood with a state championship, something they accomplished in Clermont in 2024 but fell just short of against Doral Academy a year ago. Kettler and Pierce are the only two remaining from the title team two years ago, but an additional seven remember the feeling of leaving as runner-ups a year ago.
After seeing familiar district foes in Crestview in the regional semifinal and Navarre in the regional final, Pace will see a team it hasn’t seen this season in the semifinal. But it will bring an experienced group, ready for things as simple as playing in the afternoon instead of the usual evening times, which they prepared for with a trip to Panama City.
And maybe most importantly, an experienced group hungry to write a different ending than a year ago.
“All the girls that went to state last year and this year, we’re all so motivated because we know what it felt like to lose,” DeMarcus said. “Especially in a close game like that, 1-0. So we all have such a motivation and such grit to go back and win it.”
Boys Volleyball
2A state semifinals (Polk State College, Winter Haven)
No. 1 Belen Jesuit 3, No. 4 Gulf Breeze 1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 25-22)
Two straight state semifinals and the same results for the Dolphins. Gulf Breeze was eliminated in the state semifinals in four sets, just like they were by Reagan a year ago.
Belen Jesuit (25-6) will play defending state champion Lake Howell in the 2A title on May 16 at 6 p.m. CT. The Wolverines previously beat the Dolphins 2-1 at a tournament in Orlando on March 28.
Gulf Breeze was making its second straight Final Four appearance despite only being in its third season as a program.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pace softball earns sixth straight Final Four berth
Reporting by Justin Fitzgerald, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
