By Rick Pedone

Sports Editor

The softball regular season ends Friday, setting the stage for the district tournaments next week.

St. Cloud will host the 7A District 6 tournament, while Osceola is the site of the 7A-5 tournament.

Harmony, 14-4, the No. 1 seed, is favored at the 7A-6 tournament. Harmony plays No. 4 Oak Ridge Tuesday at 5 p.m. St. Cloud, No. 2, plays No. 3 Celebration, 5-10, at 7 p.m.

The championship is Thursday at 6 p.m.

Harmony split four games at the Spruce Creek tournament last month and prepped for the districts with a difficult closing stretch against Sarasota, Cypress Creek, Osceola and Viera.

“I planned on it that way to hopefully prepare for the playoffs,” Horns Coach Mike Clark said. “We’ll be ready to go.”

St. Cloud, 16-7, is playing well, Coach Ray Whobrey said.

“The girls are doing well and we are where I expected to be at this time in the season.” he said. “We have had a couple of illnesses and injuries with girls during the season and with a little luck we will have them back in time for the district playoffs.”

Whobrey said inexperience has cost St. Cloud during the season.

“We are very young, the infielders are freshmen and sophomores and the outfield has a junior, sophomore and a freshman, and with being so young we have made some defensive mistakes at inopportune times,” he said. “I’m proud of the girls and with a little luck maybe we will surprise some teams in the district playoffs.”

Celebration brings a 4-10 record to the tournament, but the Storm lost only 6-5 to St. Cloud last month in a game that was suspended by rain.

The 7A-5 tournament should be decided between the top two seeds, No. 1 Osceola, 16-7, and No. 2 East Ridge, 19-4. The teams tied for the district lead at 9-1. OHS won a coin toss for the top seed. The teams split regular season contests.

“We feel confident. We’re young, but we’re learning and getting better each game,” Osceola Coach George Coffey said.

The Lady Kowboys won two games at the Kissimmee Klassic last weekend, beating Jacksonville Bolles, 9-1, Saturday to earn seventh place in the Gold bracket. Chantall Crockett (.667) and Kenya Pereira (.643) led OHS at the plate.

The 7A-5 tournament begins Monday when No. 4 Gateway (7-12) hosts No. 5 Liberty (2-14) at 5:30 p.m., and No. 3 Lake Minneola (11-10) hosts No. 6 Poinciana (0-15) at 7:30 p.m.

East Ridge meets the Lake Minneola-PHS winner Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at OHS. The Lady Kowboys play at 7:30 p.m. The championship is April 20 at 7 p.m. The district champs and runners-up will meet in the regional quarterfinals April 25.

Defending state champion Palm Beach Gardens, ranked No. 1 nationally by ESPN, won the Blue bracket championship at the Kissimmee Klassic last weekend, defeating No. 1 Class 4A Gulliver Prep, 16-0, in six innings in the title game at the Osceola County Softball Complex. Pembroke Pines stopped Green Cove Springs Clay, 4-1, for the Gold bracket championship.