Outmuscled in championship, Wellington looking toward future

“I told the girls, ‘Nobody has done that to them yet, and you just did it to them in the first inning.’ And we had our chances, too.”

The Wolverines had two runners thrown out at the plate, stranded another runner on third base and had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning only to come up empty.

Wellington starter Kate Desimone gave up two runs in the first, but shut down the Oakleaf lineup after that. Kat Glenn made two spectacular catches in the outfield.

And reliever Katie Schmidt had a solid sixth inning before Oakleaf was able to break through in the seventh, taking advantage of several Wolverine mistakes. But for a team with only three seniors — Cynthia Whitty, Cathy Vega and Taylor Koos — that did not win its district and had to hit the road against teams like Bartow, Lakeland Jenkins and Lake Howell just to get to the final four, the Wolverines had quite a season.

Saturday was the first state championship game in program history,

“I’m just so proud of them,” Boretti said. “[I told them], ‘Did anybody think we’d be standing here at the state championship game?’ Nobody thought we would.

“The run was phenomenal. We beat good teams. And then to be 2-1 in the seventh inning against a nationally ranked team that has five seniors. Their pitcher is a senior. [Desimone] is a freshman. We’ve got a lot to look forward to.”

CARL KOTALA/COURTESY Wellington's Cynthia Whitty, left, and Bailey Cain show their their state runner-up medals after Saturday night’s Class 8A state title game at Historic Dodgertown.