ALL-COUNTY SOFTBALL — St. Cloud’s Felblinger stood out among seniors

  • St. Cloud freshman Addison Felblinger excelled in the pitching circle and at the plate for the Bulldogs this season. PHOTO/ST. CLOUD HIGH SCHOOL
    St. Cloud freshman Addison Felblinger excelled in the pitching circle and at the plate for the Bulldogs this season. PHOTO/ST. CLOUD HIGH SCHOOL

The Osceola County softball season featured many outstanding senior players who’ve committed to play at the collegiate level next year. But St. Cloud freshman Addison Felblinger stood out in the pitching circle and at the plate to be named Osceola News-Gazette Softball Player of the Year for the 2023 season.

Felblinger was the ace of the St. Cloud pitching staff with 1.98 ERA. She struck out 117 batters in 93.2 innings. At the plate, she was one of the Lady Bulldogs top hitters with a .489 batting average and a .507 on-base percentage. She collected 40 hits with six doubles, seven triples and 22 RBI.

Felblinger edged seniors Jodee Matos of Osceola and Amanda Whalen of Harmony. Matos batted .466 and carried a .946 fielding percentage in leading the Kowboys to an OBC Championship and a second-place district finish. Whalen, Harmony’s team captain, paced the Longhorns to a district championship as its team leader. She had 13 RBI in 18 games.

Harmony and St. Cloud led the way with for All-County selections each. Joining Felblinger from the Bulldogs were O.C. LeMeau, Brooke Scott and Brianna Costa. LeMeau hit .532 with a team-leading 42 hits and 19 RBI and Scott batted .421 with 26 runs scored and a team-leading 16 stolen bases. Costa, a freshman like Felblinger, was the Bulldogs’ No. 2 pitcher, hit .322 and knocked in 18 runs. Three of St. Cloud’s four All-County players will return off a team that won 15 games and earned an at-large regional playoff berth.

Harmony’s District 7A10 championship team was a veteran dominated team. Fellow seniors Ireland Sibbitt, Lindsay Green, and Dominica Kohout join Whalen on the team. Green was the ace of the Harmony staff with a solid 1.86 ERA and averaged more than a strikeout per inning (84 K in 71 IP) and hit over .300 as did Sibbitt (.315) and Kohout (.318).

OBC champion Osceola and Poinciana place three players each on the All-County Team. Matos is joined by fellow seniors Nayeli Hernandez (.474 batting average, 15 stolen bases) and Kaylee Jones (27 RBI, .355 batting average, .537 slugging percentage, nine extra base hits).

Poinciana contributes Corymar Gotay, Keyanna Stanley and Mayra Saez. Gotay and Stanley hit .517 and .527 respectively; Saez hit .365 and led the team with 32 stolen bases while excelling at shortstop defensively. Stanley was just a freshman for the Eagles, which graduated only three of its top 15 players in May.

Rounding out the 15-member All-County team was Liberty’s Abigail Esparza (.675 batting average with 17 RBI) and Tohopekaliga’s Jessilyn Diaz (.500 batting average, 11 SB, 4.75 ERA).

Although Osceola’s Miranda Watford was named Orange Belt Conference Coach of the Year after the Lady Kowboys won the conference tournament, the News-Gazette’s Coach of the Year goes to Poinciana’s Randy Beeken. Taking over a team in 2021 that won just six games in the previous seven years, Beeken guided the Eagles to 10 wins in just his second season in 2022 and then posted the school’s first winning record in 2023 (14-9), going 8-4 against county opposition.