By Rick Pedone

Sports Editor

The opportunistic Harmony Longhorns won their Class 4A state semifinal softball game against Bradenton Braden River Monday, 2-1, by  successfully repeating the same formula that worked at their regional final last week.

Despite striking out 16 times and scratching out only three hits, Harmony made the most of its rare scoring opportunities thanks to aggressive plays on the base paths.

Meanwhile, the pitching combination of freshman off-speed pitcher Molly Baker and sophomore power thrower Lauren Harris confounded the Pirates lineup. The Pirates didn’t get a hit until they bunched three in the bottom of the seventh to score their only run.

Coach Deanna Sphaler, filling in for suspended head coach Ralph King at the state tournament in Clermont, said, “The more people tell us we can’t, the more determined we are. We knew we were the underdog.”

Pirates pitcher Courtney Mirabella sent 10 of the first 12 Harmony batters off with strikeouts, and she didn’t allow a baserunner until Payton Dering drilled a one-out double to right center in the top of the fifth inning.

“We were asking each other in the dugout what was going on,” Dering said. “Sure, she had a good fastball, but nothing that we hadn’t seen before. And, she had a good rise ball, but we’ve seen better.”

But, Dering’s hit swung the momentum.

“That’s the way it is with us. Once somebody gets that first hit, it charges us up, then everyone starts to hit,” she said.

Not that the Longhorns pounded the ball after Dering’s hit, but hustle and good fortune provided Harmony with a 1-0 lead.

Taylor Kuwik went in to run for Dering, and one out later, she broke from the bag when Bri Kimura struck out, but raced for third base when Pirates catcher Alyssa Patneaude couldn’t field the ball cleanly. Patneaude gathered the loose ball and threw to first baseman Nicole Tira. But, Kimura managed to kick the ball from Tira’s glove, and Kuwick raced home with the go-ahead run.

“I paused around third to see what was going on. I knew I was going to make it easy,” Kuwik said.

Braden River Coach Doug Powell protested the play, saying that Kimura did not stay in the baseline on the play and that the umpires should have called her out.

“She was inside the baseline, and we had the ball in our glove,” he said. “The umpire didn’t see it that way.”

But, Kimura said she did stay within the baseline.

“Under those circumstances, I have the right to go for the bag,” she said. “I did sort of kick the ball out of her glove.”

With Harris, mixing a fastball and curve ball, causing the Pirates hitters to pop up or ground out weakly, Harmony looked set.

In the seventh, Brittany Bruns walked with one out, Dering singled up the middle and and pinch runner Kaitlyn Burroughs took third. Senior Beth Newcott then put down a perfect suicide squeeze to score Burroughs and give Harmony a 2-0 cushion entering the bottom of the seventh.

“We said that we needed to get one more run in that inning,” Sphaler said.

Especially when the Pirates, 26-4, got a leadoff double from Brianna Maxa. Harris got Nicole Tira to ground out sharply to Newcott at second, and Harris struck out Hannah Loyer with a 2-2 breaking pitch for the second out.

But, Alyssa Patneaude singled home pinch runner Jada Shopfer to make it 2-1. Harris walked No. 9 hitter Brooke Ribarich before leadoff batter Kenya Yancy singled off the glove of Harris to load the bases.

“I was nervous,” Harris said. “I knew I had to bear down and get the last out.”

Which she did, when Alyssa Patneaude flied out to Savannah Austin in right for the third out.

“We just started swinging the bats too late,” lamented Coach Powell.”