By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

First, Harmony High’s softball players were jubilant Wednesday when they beat two-time defending state champion Dunnellon, 11-4, at Longhorn field.

But, that joy turned to concern after one of the team’s key players, junior pitcher Breann Vanderzyl, was seriously injured in an auto accident just minutes after the game ended.

Vanderzyl, who pitched three innings and scored two runs Wednesday, broke her leg when the vehicle she and Harmony baseball pitcher A.J. Stevens were in was struck on U.S. Highway 192, just off campus.

She was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center, where she underwent surgery Thursday and was recovering, Longhorns Coach Ralph King said.

The Lady Longhorns, 19-7, played Tavares Friday in the semifinal round. That winner will travel to either Dade City Pasco or New Port Richey River Ridge Tuesday at 7 p.m. for the 4A-2 regional final. The regional champion advances to the state tournament May 9-10 at Clermont.

Harmony batted around in the first inning, chasing Tigers starter Nicole Drew, who gave up five earned runs.

Freshman shortstop Aleshia Ocasio reached on a walk and eventually scored on an error, one of four miscues the Tigers committed in the opening frame.

Brianne Kimura and Brittany Bruns both reached on errors, then Vanderzyl drew a walk to load the bases.

Catcher Payton Dering, one of only three seniors in the starting lineup, crunched a two-run double to left center to make it 3-0.

After Drew walked Beth Newcott, third baseman Jodi Nestle greeted reliever Alora Thompson with a three-run double to right center, upping the lead to 6-0. Nestle scored on another error after Ocasio’s second hit of the inning.

For Dering, who had another RBI hit in the sixth inning, and the other Longhorns veterans, the victory was sweet revenge after Dunnellon eliminated the Longhorns from the playoffs the past two years.

“Oh, yeah, we know against a team like Dunnellon that we had to come out and play hard from the start,” she said. “I was just trying to hit it hard. My hitting has not been all that great of late, but it seems to be coming around now for some reason. I guess it’s good timing.”

Vanderzyl pitched out of a two-on, one out jam in the first inning to set the tone, Harmony Coach Ralph King said.

“That was a huge momentum shift, then we carried through by scoring seven runs in the first inning,” King said. “We talked all week about how we had to come out strong, to build up intensity, because we know what a great program we were playing against.”

Harmony caught a break in that Dunnellon’s No. 1 pitcher, Haley Fagan, was suspended by Coach Kevin Fagan, her father, prior to last week’s district championship game for violating team rules.

“We were shocked. We knew she had been suspended from the district championship game, but we expected to see her out here (Wednesday),” King said. “Obviously, that worked to our advantage, but I’m proud of the way our team carried its intensity through the game. I have confidence that would have been the case regardless of who we were playing against.”

Dunnellon started playing small ball and scratched together three bunt singles, a walk, a Harmony error and a couple of ground outs to put three runs on the board in the third inning, but Kimura singled and scored on Harris’s single in the fourth to make it 8-3.

Dunnellon scored again in the sixth, but after a 30-minute rain delay, the Lady Longhorns put the game away with three more runs including RBI hits from Dering and senior Beth Newcott.

Lauren Harris pitched the last four innings for Harmony. With Vanderzyl now out for the remainder of the season, the sophomore will carry the load on the mound through the rest of the playoffs.

See aroundosceola.com for updates.