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Osceola pitcher Alexis Miranda, shown Friday's district championship victory, held Palm Beach Gardens at bay in a number of innings in Thursday's Region 7A-3 playoff quarterfinal. PHOTO/KATIE WILLIAMS
The softball season came to a crashing halt for county teams on Thursday night in the regional quarterfinal round of the Region 7A-3 playoffs.
District champion Osceola (6-2 at home to Palm Beach Gardens), OBC champion Harmony (15-0 at Port St. Lucie Centennial) and St. Cloud (2-0 to Wellington) all fell.
The Kowboys gave the No. 2 seeded Gators a battle through four innings after being no-hit through three innings and fell behind 1-0. Things could have been a lot worse as the Gators put five other runners in scoring position in the first four frames – only to have Osceola pitcher Alexis Miranda bear down and pitch out of trouble each time.
After Palm Beach Gardens added two runs in the fourth to take a 3-0 lead, a pair of OHS freshmen helped make it a game for Osceola in the bottom of the fourth. Faith Ferrer, the team’s leading hitter with a .557 average, collected Osceola’s first hit with a single and Samantha Edwards followed with a towering home run to cut the deficit to 3-2.
PBG’s Victoria Scott opened up the lead with a line shot up the middle that deflected off of Miranda’s glove and reached centerfield for a two-run single and a 5-2 Gator lead.
“Without question, Lexi has been our leader all season and she pitched a really gutsy game tonight,” Osceola coach Miranda Watford said. “She made a great play on first ball and almost snagged the line drive. If we could have gotten out of the inning just one run down, the momentum of game could have changed.”
PBG pitcher Sydney Shaffer retired eight of the last nine batters she faced – allowing only a single in the sixth to Tenley Dawson. Shaffer (11-1) finished the game with a three-hitter, striking out 12 and allowing just one walk.
“She’s a really good player, but I think our inexperience also helped her tonight,” Watford said. “We were not being very patient at the plate – especially in the first half of the game -- swinging from our heels and just trying too hard to make things happen.’
Watford said she was pleased with her young team and its efforts. Osceola started six freshmen and a sophomore in its lineup.
“This was a really fun team to be around this year. They fought so hard all season and got a district title and simply never quit. We have another solid young group coming up next year so there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic.”
Osceola finished the season at 14-11; while the Gators (22-4) move on to face Centennial in a regional semifinal. OBC Champion Harmony (11-11) was no match for third-seeded Centennial and pitcher Hailey Brereton, who pitched a no-hitter and struck out all 12 batters she faced, and combined with Jaelyn Cooke to go 6-for-9 with two home runs and nine RBI.
In other action, Wellington scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 2-0 win over the Lady Bulldogs. A district champion, Wellington (20-3) is the top seed in the region and now plays Jupiter in the Region 3 semifinal; while St. Cloud finishes the year at 13-15.
