It's Spring Championship Week in Osceola County

The eight Osceola County public high schools vie for Orange Belt Conference championships this week in baseball, softball, boys’ volleyball and track and field.

The action begins in earnest on Monday when quarterfinal contests will be held in baseball, softball and boys volleyball. The semifinals for all three sports are slated for Tuesday; with third place and championship games on Friday night. The track and field championship for both boys and girls will be contested on Saturday at St. Cloud.

Seeding for the baseball tournament was based on the state rankings as of Tuesday. Top-seeded Harmony and second-seeded Osceola will host a quarterfinal doubleheader Monday. First round games include #1 Harmony (9-8) vs. #8 Liberty (0-11) at 7 p.m. The game will be preceded with a contest between #5 Tohopekaliga (11-6) and #4 Celebration (6-7) at 4:30 p.m. The winners will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the semi-finals.; with losers in a placement game at 4:30 p.m.

The lower half of the bracket will take place at Osceola and will feature #3 St. Cloud (9-5) taking on #6 Gateway (5-9) at 4:30 p.m. and #2 Osceola hosting #7 Poinciana (1-7) at 7. The losers play in a 4:30 p.m. placement game on Tuesday; followed by a winners’ semifinal game at 7 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m. at St. Cloud.

The baseball tournament should be a wide-open affair. With an impressive 5-3 road win over St. Cloud on Friday, Harmony is the hottest team in the county – having won five of their last six. The Longhorns’ only loss in that stretch was two weeks ago to state-ranked Lake Brantley.

Despite a four-game losing streak and a 6-9 record, Osceola had played an extremely difficult schedule and features one of the best players in the county in senior Nick Palmi (.489 batting average, 21 RBI, 10 extra base hits, and a 2.92 ERA as a pitcher). 

St. Cloud coach David Blackmore does not have a senior his starting line-up and it features freshman Sammy Echeverry  (.452, 3 home runs) and his brother, sophomore Sebastian Echeverry (.438, 3.50 ERA). Although they lost four in a row after a 6-1 start, Tohopekaliga has righted the ship and has four of its last five and they lead the county with 10 wins.

The softball tournament should be equally competitive. Harmony and St. Cloud earned top seeds and will host the quarterfinals and semifinals Monday and Tuesday. Top-seed Harmony (5-7) hosts Gateway (0-7) at 7 p.m. and Poinciana (9-6) plays Tohopekaliga (10-3) in the 5 p.m. game.

The Lady Kowboys (6-7) have an interesting team led by five talented freshmen starters – including Faith Ferrer (.534 batting average). OHS plays Liberty (6-8) in the 5 p.m. game; with the winner taking on the 7 p.m. winner of #7 Celebration (3-9) and #2 St. Cloud (6-9) on Tuesday. The Championship game is slated for 7 p.m. Friday night at St. Cloud.

“I like our chances, but it certainly will not be easy,” veteran St. Cloud coach Ray Whobrey noted. “To get there, we most likely will have to beat two arch-rivals in Osceola and Harmony. Getting the big hits and playing flawless defense will be a big key for us.”

After several seasons of domination (four of last five OBC titles), Celebration (4-3) finds itself as just the second seed in the boys’ volleyball tournament behind No. 1 St. Cloud (10-4). The Bulldogs are 3-0 this year against county competition, including a five-set win over the Storm earlier this year. St. Cloud receives a first round bye and will face the winner the 4-5 game between Harmony (8-10) and Gateway (3-9) in Tuesday’s semifinals.

St. Cloud will be led by senior Will Sutphen, with 171 kills and a .305 hitting percentage as the Bulldogs look to capture their second OBC title. 

The Storm will host the lower half bracket quarterfinals taking on Liberty in the 7 p.m. game, while third-seeded Poinciana (8-2) takes on Tohopekaliga in the 5 p.m. game. St. Cloud and Celebration will host semifinal games on Tuesday; with Gateway hosting the third place (5 p.m.) and OBC Championship game (7 p.m.) on Friday.

Track takes center stage on Saturday, where Harmony boys and girls teams have won the last three OBC titles. One veteran coach believes the Longhorns girls should be favored to win their fourth straight title, but believes the boys’ title may be up for grabs.

“We have competed against most of the public county teams this year and frankly the Gateway boys team has some dudes up and down their roster,” long-time Osceola coach Eric Pinellas said. “On the girls’ side, I think Harmony has some depth in the distance, middle distance and field events and will be really tough to unseat. We are pretty strong in the sprints, but I lost one of my top girls to injury and I think that may keep us from having a shot at the team title.”

With 180 points up for grabs this week, the Orange Belt Conference All-Sports Championship race will most likely be decided. Currently, Harmony – which has won the last three OBC All-Sports Championships – has 119.5 total points and holds a narrow lead over St. Cloud (115.5) and Celebration (108). St. Cloud has won four since 2012 – but none since 2020 – and would love to take the title back.

“Both Harmony and St. Cloud place a lot of emphasis and importance on winning the OBC All-Sports trophy and I would like nothing better than to have Dan hand the trophy to us, they have had it long enough,” St. Cloud Athletics Director Bryan Smart jokingly said of his good friend and Harmony AD Dan Kerr. “I felt at the beginning of the year, the championship would come down to the results of the baseball and softball tournaments, but as it turns out five championships are up for grabs this week. Obviously winning individual titles are important but it is near the top when you don’t win.”