Harris invaluable to Horns

Home

Opinions

Track and Field

Other Sun Publications

FREE DELIVERY!
Get Free Delivery! Request your Osceola News Gazette Today.

Login Form

2013 Osceola Health

2013 Sexual Predator Sexual Offender List sexualpredatorcover13

Windows on the Classroom March 2013

School Calendar
2012-2013

View our other Special Sections

Harris invaluable to Horns

Sports

Friday, 29 July 2011 13:46

News-Gazette Photo/Andrew Sullivan

Lauren Harris became Harmony’s most valuable player after teammate Breann Vanderzyl was injured during the state playoffs.

Sophomore hit, pitched HHS to Class 4A state tournament

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
All Lauren Harris had to do during the final two weeks of the 2011 softball season was overcome the emotional distress of seeing one of her best friends seriously injured in an auto accident, then pitch six innings of relief from a sinkhole masquerading as a pitching circle in a regional championship game.
Harris had no choice but to become the backbone of Harmony’s Longhorns during their quest to the Class 4A state tournament.

That’s a pretty tough assignment for a 16-year-old sophomore who, by the way, was ill before the regional title game and didn’t arrive at Dade City, site of the contest, until one hour before the first pitch after visiting the doctor.
“It was pretty hard,” Harris said. “I was feeling the pressure. The teachers at school were telling me that I had to carry the weight after Breezy (Breann Vanderzyl) got hurt.”
Harris was part of a formidable 1-2 pitching combo with Vanderzyl through the regular season, but after Vanderzyl broke eight bones and nearly lost her life in an accident the night of the team’s first-round playoff win against Dunnellon, Harris became invaluable to the team.
Fortunately, with a .411 batting average and a 60-mph fastball, Harris, the Osceola News-Gazette Softball Player of the Year, had the tools to guide the Lady Longhorns to the Class 4A championship game.
Harris shares player of the year honors with Osceola High third baseman Alexa Ballard.
Harris and Vanderzyl were first-team Miracle Sports Class 4A all-state selections. Ballard was first-team all-state in Class 5A.
Harris said it was difficult to focus on softball after Vanderzyl’s accident, but she was inspired to do her best.
“I didn’t want to let her down. That’s what I’d be thinking when I was pitching, that I had to do a good job for Breezy,” Harris said. “We’ve played together for a long time. We’re very close. It was hard to concentrate, sometimes. But, I knew I had to bear down and get the job done.”
Harris, who plays the outfield when she isn’t pitching, is much like Vanderzyl in that she also is one of the team’s best hitters. She had four home runs and 31 RBIs in 2011, a large reason why Harmony won 22 games and came very close to winning the state championship.
Two days after Vanderzyl’s accident, the Longhorns played Tavares in the regional semifinal round and had to rally for a 6-4 victory after trailing 2-0 and 4-2. Harris had two RBIs in that game and earned the win.
“We got together the day after Breezy got hurt and talked about what we had to do, but we struggled against Tavares and had to come from behind,” she said.
The regional final at Dade City Pasco High was more challenging. Harris was up all night before the game with pain in her kidney and got to Pasco High shortly before the game, still not feeling well.
Freshman Molly Baker pitched three heroic innings before Harris came in from center field to pitch in the fourth inning with her team trailing. She got into big trouble in the fifth inning by walking two batters and hitting another to load the bases, partly because there was a huge hole where her leg landed after each follow through.
“It was hard,” she said. “I wasn’t feeling well, but I had to give my team a chance.”
Harmony rallied, 4-3, in nine innings, to land a berth at the state tournament.
Again, Harris entered in relief of Baker in the state semifinal game against Bradenton Braden River, and she again delivered by allowing just one run in five innings in a 2-1 victory.
Harmony’s fairy tale run ended against Eau Gallie in the championship game when the Commodores scored four unearned runs in the top of the seventh inning to blow open a 3-2 game. Harris pitched out of trouble the entire game, stranding 10 baserunners, before Eau Gallie broke through. Commodores No. 9 hitter Cassidy Masso’s two-out, two-run double to left ignited the seventh-inning outburst.
“That was an inside fastball,” Harris recalled. “I knew as soon as I let it go that it could be trouble. I had told our coaches midway through the game that they seemed to be waiting for the inside pitches, so we went more outside after that and it got better.”
The team lost several outstanding senior starters in outfielder Brittany Bruns, catcher Payton Dering and second baseman Beth Newcott to graduation, but the team’s future looks glaringly bright.
Harris is one of several outstanding players returning to the Longhorns. Vanderzyl, already playing for her travel ball team, should be fully healed for her senior season and other underclassmen like outfielders Madison Nichols and Savannah Austin, third baseman Jodi Nestle, shortstop Aleshia Ocasio and first baseman Brianne Kimura all return.
Plus, Harris’s sister, Brooke, is arriving as a freshman and she has considerable talent, said her sister.
“She probably is a better hitter than I am. She seems to see the ball better than I do,” Harris said.
Harris is playing travel ball with the Florida Select 16-under team.
“We go most of the summer. We really don’t get a break until maybe the first month of the school year,” she said. “I love it, though. Softball is what I love to do.”
Still two years from graduation, Harris already has big college plans.
“I like the team at Florida, or maybe Alabama,” she said. “I want to play for one of the very good teams.”