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Big 7th inning gives Eau Gallie
4A state title over Longhorns

By Rick Pedone
Staff Writer

For most of seven innings Tuesday, Harmony clung fiercely to its goal of winning the Class 4A state softball championship at Clermont.

But Eau Gallie, which had stranded 10 runners over the first six innings, finally broke through with four runs, all unearned, in the top of the seventh to clinch a 7-2 win at the National Training Center.

It was the Commodores’ (27-5) first state championship, and the first time Harmony (22-8) reached the championship game.

“I’m so proud of our team. They did great. Second in the state isn’t bad,” Harmony assistant coach Deanna Sphaler, filling in for suspended head coach Ralph King, said. “If you had told me before the season that we’d be in the championship game, I would have thought you were crazy.”

Starting the championship game with a lineup that included six underclassmen, Harmony had to play uphill from the first inning, when the Commodores’ Rachel Engle doubled in two runs for a lead Eau Gallie never relinquished and constantly threatened to build upon.

Longhorns pitcher Lauren Harris, who knew many of Eau Gallie’s players through travel ball, had to pitch out of trouble throughout the game. She issued six walks, hit a batter and gave up 10 hits, but she had an uncanny knack of escaping jams. The Commodores never went down in order and left runners stranded in scoring position five times.

Horns left fielder Madison Nichols helped, making a shoestring catch on a line drive in the fifth inning then throwing to second to double off a base runner for the third out.

Harris, who refused to wilt in the suffocating mid-90s heat, struck out Eau Gallie’s Alexandra Powers, batting .547, and got Engle, who had three RBIs, to line out to third with two runners aboard in the sixth to keep Harmony close, 3-1.

“I knew we had to get those last outs. You just have to bear down,” Harris, a sophomore said. “I knew their whole infield, and that they have a lot of good hitters. I’m not sure who has the advantage when you know each other like that. I guess it’s a tie.”

Harmony got on the board in the second inning when senior Brittany Bruns led off with a double to center and catcher Payton Dering poked a single up the middle. Bruns dove head first to beat the throw to the plate. Bruns’ single drove in Harris, who doubled to shallow center, in the bottom of the sixth to draw the Longhorns within one.

“I’m proud of us,” Bruns said.

Although Commodores pitcher Megan Lafon, who struck out nine, limited Harmony to five hits, the game was up for grabs until Eau Gallie batted around in the seventh.

After Brittany Wylie led off the seventh with a double, a Harmony infield error put runners on first and third. Harris got the next two batters on a strikeout and an infield grounder, but No. 9 hitter Cassidy Masso drove a two-run double to left for a 5-2 lead. Two more hits and another error brought home Eau Gallie’s last two runs.

Dering, a senior catcher, said that Harmony believed it could win the game as the seventh inning began.

“I think if it had been 3-2, a one run game, that we would have had more motivation,” she said. “When you have a sloppy inning the way we did, then a lot of that goes away.”

Senior second baseman Beth Newcott fought back tears as she reviewed the last game of her career.

“It was my favorite year of my whole time here,” said the three-year varsity starter.

Junior pitcher Breann Vanderzyl, injured in an auto accident, was on the field for the pregame introductions and the medal ceremony.

“I love these girls,” Sphaler said after Monday’s semifinal win. “They could have come apart when we lost Breezy in the accident or when our coach was suspended. But, they never give up. Nobody expected us to win.”

“I love these girls,” Sphaler said. “They could