Kowgirls slip past ’Horns in OBC test

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Like a ping pong ball, the Orange Belt Conference softball championship has bounced between Osceola and Harmony for the past four seasons.

Friday, the championship landed back at OHS after the Lady Kowboys, 12-2, defeated their cross-county rivals, 3-1, at Coffey Field.

Osceola, led by senior pitcher Sasha Mendez, who limited the Lady Longhorns to three hits and one run over five innings, jumped to a 2-0 first-inning lead and played near-flawlessly against a Harmony team that came into the game ranked No. 8 in Class 4A and winner of 11 of its past 12 games.

“Sasha gave us a great game, like she has all season,” OHS Coach George Coffey said. “She goes out there every time and gives us everything she has, and the rest of the team feeds off that and they want to make the plays behind her.”

Mendez used her change up to keep the Longhorns off balance. Although she struck out only one batter, she didn’t walk any and the Osceola defense backed her up.

Kenya Pereira came in to pitch the last two innings to record the save.

“We thought she (Pereira) gives a little different look, throws a different looking ball,” Coffey said.

Osceola jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when freshman shortstop Aisya Dennis, filling in for Nicole Osterman, who arrived late, doubled to lead off and scored on Carmen Nadal’s double. After Chantell Crockett, another freshman, singled, Pereira delivered an RBI single to score Nadal.

Harmony threatened in the second when Breann Vanderzyl singled and pinch runner Savannah Austin advanced to third with one out, but Mendez retired the next two batters.

The Horns made it 2-1 in the fourth when Lauren Harris singled, stole second and eventually scored on Vanderzyl’s squeeze bunt.

Osceola got the run back in the fifth when Alexa Ballard and Nadal singled, Crockett advanced them with a sacrifice bunt, and Jessica Callahan hit a sacrifice fly to left. Ballard just beat Harris’s strong throw from deep left field.

Harmony came up on the short end of the most bizarre play of the night. Shortstop Aleisha Ocasio walked and went to third on an infield grounder. But, when the throw to third base struck her in the back of the neck, she rolled off the base and was tagged out by Ballard.

“Her leg came off just a little when she rolled over,” Harmony Coach Ralph King said. “She was in the motion of bringing her hands up to call time.”

Instead of having a runner at third with one out, Harmony saw the bases empty with two outs. Pereira retired the last four batters.

Coffey said his team did a good job of maintaining its composure.

“I told them before the game that I understood that they knew all of those (Harmony) girls, but that they had to control their emotions. I told them that they couldn’t play outside their box,” he said. “That’s a very good team over there, and I knew we’d be excited about playing them.”

Harmony, which slipped to 13-4, defeated Tavares, 3-1, last Thursday to clinch the No. 1 seed at the 4A-6 district tournament next month. Harris pitched a one-hitter, homered and drove in two runs.

King said playing two big games back to back, both on the road, was not a factor in the loss to Osceola,

“These are the kind of teams we have to play, and these are the games we have to win if we are going to get to where we want to be,” he said. “We played the way we wanted to play. We’re always going to be aggressive on the base paths and force the action. That’s our style. We just haven’t done real well at this field for some reason.”

Both teams are off this week for spring break. Osceola hosts Winter Haven Tuesday for Senior Night before hosting the Kissimmee Klassic tournament March 31-April 2 at the Osceola County Softball Complex.

Harmony hosts Celebration Tuesday in a district contest.

The Longhorns then close the regular season against St. Cloud, Melbourne, Pine Castle Christian, Cypress Creek and East Ridge, the last four teams all considered capable of reaching their respective state tournaments.

“Those games will get us ready for what we’re going to see in the playoffs,” King said.