The Harmony Longhorns won a historic fourth OBC title in a row. (Photo/Michelle Kostuch)
Harmony used a four-run fourth to back the seven-hit pitching of Trevin Bean as the Longhorns beat St. Cloud, 8-1, to win the Orange Belt Conference baseball championship Friday at Celebration High.
It was an historic win of sorts, as the Longhorns became the first team since Osceola (2005-08) and just the second school in 46 years to win four straight OBC baseball titles.
“When you get timely hitting, good pitching, solid defense and run the bases, you have a chance to be successful,” Harmony Coach Heath Williams joked. “Seriously, that was probably our best effort of the season. After having a rough start earlier, Trevin was really good tonight. He looked a lot like he did last year when he was one of our best pitchers.”
Bean, who went 5-2 with a 2.71 ERA as a sophomore last year, came into the game 1-3 with a 6.84 ERA. He allowed three hits and a run in the first inning against St. Cloud before taking control. He struck out seven and did not allow a walk. Sixteen of the 18 outs he recorded came via strikeout or groundout.
“My changeup was the best it has been all season,” Bean said. “I was able to throw it where I wanted and got them to beat the ball in the ground. I have a lot of confidence in my defense and they did the rest.”
Down 1-0, Harmony batted around in the top of the fourth – plating four runs. Angel Medina and Sebastian Tabares led off the rally with back-to-back singles before Chase Bartlett loaded the bases with a bunt single. Pinch-hitter Shawn Brabant brought home the tying run by drawing a walk off St. Cloud starter Jack Ewalt. Harmony went ahead on Jose Scrofani’s bunt single and Bartlett scored on Yadiel Perez’s groundout. The Longhorns added a run on a wild pitch to make it 4-1.
They plated an insurance run in the fifth as Medina walked, stole second and third and scored on Bartlett’s ground out, got a two-run single in the sixth from freshman Elijah Mendez and closed out the scoring on Brabant’s RBI double in the seventh.
Harmony (13-8) has now won five of their last seven and Williams credits it to a basic change of how his young team has approached the game.
“We’re starting to play some pretty good baseball,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of experience coming back this season and we had everyone sort of doing their own thing. Over the last couple of weeks, a light sort of went off and these guys started to understand the importance of doing the little things right – stealing a base, moving a runner over, not falling behind in counts. To tell you the truth they have been a really fun group to coach the last couple of weeks.”
In falling to 16-5, St. Cloud – who came into the game as the tournament’s top seed and had outscored their first two opponents 22-1 this week – came up one game short of winning their first OBC title since 2003.
“We were a little flat tonight, and that’s going to happen sometimes in baseball,” St. Cloud coach David Blackmore said. “Give them the credit, (Bean) pitched a solid game and we didn’t do the things we needed to do to win. We’re 1-1 against them this season (the Bulldogs beat Harmony 3-2 back on March 6) and they are in our district so hopefully we will get another shot at them in the postseason.”
Nathan Bianco, Jose Alvarado, and Adrian Carradero had two hits each for St. Cloud. Ewalt struck out five in 3.2 innings.
The regular season ends next week, to be followed by district playoffs.
2026 Orange Belt Conference Baseball Championship
Quarterfinals
Osceola 10, Gateway 5
St. Cloud 16, Liberty 1
Tohopekaliga 13, Celebration 3
Harmony 17, Poinciana 2
Second Round
Celebration 8, Poinciana 5
Gateway 13, Liberty 0
St. Cloud 6, Osceola 0
Harmony 8, Tohopekaliga 2
Placement Games
3rd Place: Osceola 4, Tohopekaliga 3
5th Place: Celebration 4, Gateway 1
7th Place: Poinciana over Liberty (forfeit)
Championship at Celebration
Harmony 8, St. Cloud 1
