Harmony’s baseball and flag football teams are in a familiar place this week – the regional playoffs.
For the third year in a row, Coach Heath Williams’ Longhorns baseball team is the last Osceola County team standing on the diamond and head to Vero Beach for this weekend’s Region 7A-3 semifinal against top regional seed Vero Beach (20-4).
The best-of-three series features games on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m., with a third game to follow Saturday if necessary.
“They are an outstanding team, well coached and they have an excellent pitching staff,” Williams noted. “Having to win two of three on the road will be a big challenge but the one thing I like about our team is they do not shrink or shy away from the big moments.”
The winner of the series will face the winner of the Park Vista-Jupiter series in another best-of-3 next weekend in the regional final with a spot in the state tournament on the line.
Harmony (16-10) earned its spot against Vero with a 6-5 win over St. Cloud Friday.
Friday’s win was Harmony’s third over St. Cloud (18-6) this year—in the OBC title and district titles games and the regional playoffs. The Bulldogs won a 3-2 regular-season game on March 6.
Friday’s win against the feisty Bulldogs was nerve-racking for all involved. Trailing 1-0, the Longhorns sent nine men to plate in the third inning to take control. Shawn Brabant led off with a walk, Jose Scrofani delivered a sharp single to center and Jayden Perez loaded the bases with a perfect bunt down the third base line. Jadiel Perez then delivered a two-run single, then Angel Medina cleared the bases with a triple, and he later scored on Sebastian Thames’ RBI single. The Longhorns tacked another run in the fourth when Perez tripled down the right field line and scored when the relay throw went into the Harmony dugout.
In flag football, Longhorns’ freshman quarterback Ivy Munns threw four touchdown passes as Harmony overcame a slow start and won the District 4A-10 title, 26-13 over the host Celebration Storm.
After last week’s district play, Harmony, Gateway and Celebration all moved to play this week. Harmony has earned the number one seed in Class 4A, Region 3 and opened its bid for a shot at the Final Four with a Wednesday night game against #8 seed Cypress Creek; while Celebration—who lost a 28-14 district championship to Harmony last week (Read about it here: Harmony, Gateway find district flag football titles at the end of the road— Osceola News Gazette— came in at the number four seed and hosted Palm Beach Gardens on Wednesday. If both teams won, they will meet next week in a regional semifinal. Gateway headed to New Port Richey Gulf on Tuesday in the Class 2A playoffs, and Harmony hosted Cypress Creek Wednesday in the 3A playoffs.
Check AroundOsceola.com this week for results in those, as well as the softball district championships. In a rematch of the OBC title game, St. Cloud hosted Harmony Wednesday in the District 7A-6 title game, while Tohopekaliga hosted Lake Nona Tuesday night in the 7A-5 semifinals for the right to play Boone at Cypress Creek in the title game Thursday at 6.
Osceola played at Viera in 6A-7 Tuesday for the right to face state-ranked Melbourne in Thursday’s title game at 7 p.m.
The regional playoffs begin Thursday, May 7.
