Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Laboy drives in winning run in ninth inning
CORAL SPRINGS — Alyssa Laboy’s run-scoring double in the bottom of the ninth inning sent Coral Springs Charter past Douglas 5-4 on Thursday night in an extra-inning thriller at Betti Stradling Park.
Three-time defending state champion Coral Springs Charter upped its record to 9-1 on the young season while Douglas lost for the first time in five games.
Laboy’s blast to rightcenter scored Cassidy Crump with the winning run. Crump had walked to open the ninth and moved to second on Gianna Boccagno’s single.
“Honestly, I think that was one of the best games we’ve had so far,” Laboy said. “As a team, we never game. We always pushed through. I knew I had my team’s back there when I saw we had runners on.”
The game was a backand-forth affair late. Coral Springs Charter grabbed a 2-0 lead in the third and had a one-hitter going through five innings.
But Douglas tied it 2-all on a two-run homer from Jackie McKenna. The two squads combined for six runs in the sixth and seventh innings sending the game to extras at 4-4.
“One of the most wellplayed games I’ve been involved in in a while,” Douglas coach Brian Staubly said. “We had a real good regional final game with Jupiter last year and I think this game was better.
“We fought. We fought our butts off. It came down to one out of closing it out [in the seventh inning] and we couldn’t close it out. The girl [Crump] hit the home run. You have to give her credit for that. But I am so proud of these girls because of everything that’s going on at our school.”
Boccagno had three hits, including a home run, for Charter. Starter Emily Estroff re-entered the game in the eighth to pick up the victory. She went the first five-plus innings until McKenna’s homer in the sixth.
“They had some timely hitting, too, but we just found a way to grind it out,” said Coral Springs Charter coach Mark Montimurro.
Allison Kerce got on base four times and had three doubles. McKenna had three walks to go with the homer.