A young Harmony squad has defended its district baseball championship, and will play in the Class 7A regional playoff quarterfinals Friday. (Photo/Taylor McFee)
Harmony broke open a scoreless tie in the fourth inning with six unearned runs to beat St. Cloud, 8-2, in the District 7A-9 championship baseball game Friday at the Mike Fields Complex.
The Longhorns (15-10) are now guaranteed a spot in the regional playoffs when the brackets are released Monday. St. Cloud (18-6) will most likely receive an at-large regional bid.
“Tonight was a prime example of how this team has come together this year. No one is worried about individual playing time or stats, they only care about winning,” Harmony coach Heath Williams said.
The game started as a pitching dual with St. Cloud’s Rafael Martinez and Harmony’s Trevin Bean each throwing three innings of scoreless ball. But in the fourth, pinch hitter Ashton Fayne delivered a two-run double. Jose Scrofani would score on a wild pitch and after a walk and single, Angel Medina slammed a two-run double to the gap and Harmony led, 6-0. All six runs were scored with two outs.
“No excuses, you have to make the routine plays and we didn’t do that tonight,” St. Cloud Coach David Blackmore said. “Give Harmony credit, they came up with the big hits after the inning should have been over, but I can’t help but feel we gave this game away.”
St. Cloud cut the gap to 6-2 in the bottom of the fourth on a leadoff double by Sam Quijada and a line drive home run over the right center field fence by Jose Alvarado. The Bulldogs had a chance to add on in the fifth when they put two on with one out but relief pitcher Jaxson Kraubetz struck out Jayden Luciano and Quijada to end the inning. St. Cloud loaded the bases in the sixth with two walks and a hit batsmen, but relief pitcher Raul Romay struck out Gage Rutledge and Genaro Santana to put out that fire.
“Despite the bad fourth inning, we had ample opportunities to get back into the game,” Blackmore said. “But we kept the bats on our shoulders and you simply can’t do that.”
In a season where the Longhorns returned just two senior starters, they were able to win their third consecutive district championship — an accomplishment not lost on Williams.
“We had five sophomores, a freshman and three juniors play significant roles for us tonight,” he said. “Obviously, we hope to have a lot more baseball to play this year, but the future certainly looks bright.”
The win also gave Harmony a 2-1 season edge over rival St. Cloud, and if the rankings fall just right, they could end up hosting St. Cloud in a first-round regional match-up next week.
“We’re happy to win the district title and hopefully get a home playoff game next Friday,” Williams said. “But it doesn’t matter who it is against.”
Blackmore added “We need to wait before it’s official but getting into regionals is the biggest thing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s against Harmony again or somewhere else. We will regroup and get ready for next week.”
The regional quarterfinals
In a slightly altered format this season, regional quarterfinals will be a one game playoff. Starting with the regional semifinals, a best of three format will take over.”
Lady Kowboys dominate track — Osceola’s girls team picked up where it left off after last week’s Orange Belt Conference championships by totally dominating the District 4A-7 meet Friday, also at Harmony.
OHS racked up 205 team points in nearly doubling up second-place second Cloud (117) in the nine-team meet. Harmony (111) was third.
On the boys side, Viera (140) won the team title, St. Cloud (113) was second, while host Harmony finished in 5th (84.5).
“The only real goal in districts is to get to the next round,” Osceola track coach Eric Pinellas said. “And we were able to advance a lot of athletes. But the team championship was a great accomplishment. Everyone stepped up today, especially our two freshmen.”
Those first-year competitors included Ziannah Gooden, who won four gold medals – taking the 100 and 200 and running legs on the winning 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relay teams. Freshman teammate Alanna Smith won the 100 and 400 hurdles and ran a leg on the winning 4 x 100 relay.
Next up is the regional meet on Saturday, May 2 at George Jenkins High in Lakeland, where bids to the May 9 Class 4A state meet at the University of North Florida will be on the line.
Here are Friday’s automatic regional qualifiers from Osceola County:
4 x 800 Relay Team: St. Cloud Girls, 1st; St. Cloud Boys, 1st
100 Hurdles (G): Alanna Smith, Osceola, 1st
110 Hurdles (B): Denzel Hawkins, St. Cloud, 2nd
100 Meters (G): Ziannah Gooden, Osceola, 1st
1600 Meters (G): Kyla Perez, St. Cloud, 1st
4 x 100 Relay: Osceola Girls, 1st; Harmony Boys, 1st
400 Meters Girls: Norlena Forde, Osceola, 1st
400 Hurdles Girls: Smith, Osceola, 1st
400 Hurles Boys: Hawkins, St. Cloud 1st, Elias Torres, St. Cloud, 2nd
800 Meters Girls: Perez, St. Cloud, 1st; Amyah Hall, St. Cloud 2nd
800 Meters Boys: Yissiel Rodriguez, St Cloud, 2nd
200 Meters Girls: Gooden, Osceola, 1st
3200 Meters Girls: Cailyn Matchak, St. Cloud, 2nd
3200 Meters Boys: Luis Rivera, St. Cloud, 2nd
4 x 400 Relay: Osceola Girls 1st; St. Boys, 2nd
High Jump Girls: Sanaa Charles, Tohopekaliga, 1st, Layla Kelly. St. Cloud, 2bd
High Jump Boys: Quianiel Reyes, Harmony, 2nd
Pole Vault Girls: Brooke Bonesteel, St. Cloud, 1st, Harper Avidisian, St. Cloud, 2nd
Pole Vault Boys: Gsbe Centano, Tohopekaliga, 1st, Evan Prather, Harmony, 2nd\
Long Jump Girls: Cheyenne Price, Osceola, 1st; Nicole Oliveira, Osceola, 2nd
Triple Jump Girls: Korbyn Jones, Osceola, 1st; Price, Osceola , 2nd
Discus Boys: Ossiah Foster, Tohopekaliga, 2nd
Discus Girls: Bailey Devries, Osceola, 1st, Rachel Winston, Osceola, 2nd
Javelin Girls: Julie Green, Harmony, 1st, Kendall Tucker, Harmony, 2nd
Javelin Boys: Jacob Butler, Harmony, 2nd
Shot Put, Girls: Milon Robinson, Osceola, 2nd
Shot Put, Boys: Jason Lewis, Osceola, 1st, Mekhi Ealy, Harmony, 2nd
