West Orange bid for three-peat falls short
VERO BEACH — A rare attempt to win three straight softball state championships ended in defeat for West Orange on Thursday.
The Warriors, champions in 2016 and 2017, committed a pair of errors and were held to four hits in a 7-0 setback against Davie Western (22-7) at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach.
The loss ended a 12-game win streak for a West Orange team ranked No. 1 in the Sentinel Super Six. The Warriors (24-8) rode a hot streak to the state tournament after a slow start to a season that was impacted by a rash of injuries and a heart attack that sidelined head coach Todd LeNeave.
“This group was phenomenal this year — to be able to make a run like that and get all the way to this point when nobody, including some of us, thought that they’d be here,” said LaNeave, who returned after his recovery.
Western scored three runs in the third inning to build a 4-0 lead. West Orange later left three runners stranded when a hard hit by standout senior Lexie Blair, a Michigan signee, was snagged on a diving effort by Wildcats second baseman Bianca Cristafaro.
Blair, Cassie Rivard, Cerynn Siermer and Lexi Scalzo each reached safely on hits in the loss.
“To be with this special group of girls, considering how different it was from the two seasons before, it’s bittersweet because we’ve been through a lot this season physically, mentally and emotionally,” Blair said. “But this has been a good experience getting here for the third time in a row.”
The Warriors, who also reached a region final in 2015, were attempting to become the first area softball team to three-peat and the first large-class program to do so since fastpitch was initially sanctioned as a FHSAA championship sport in 1989.
“You could tell we were pretty down in the beginning and it didn’t feel like we were ourselves,” Blair said. “We were maybe trying too hard to spark the fire, but the things we had during our win streak just weren’t showing.”