Oxbridge comeback try falls short in state championship
VERO BEACH — Oxbridge Academy fell one step short of bringing home its first state softball championship.
Adriana Otero went 3 for 4 with two runs, and Meghan Diaz and Nikkia Benitez each added a pair of hits to lead Miami-Westminster Christian to a 4-2 victory against the ThunderWolves Thursday night in the Class 4A state title game.
The win was the 27th of the season for Westminster Christian, which snapped Oxbridge’s 23- game winning streak. The ThunderWolves finished 27-3.
“That’s a great program,” O x b r i d g e c o a c h K e v i n Drake said of the Warriors. “They’ve been here a lot of times. Our girls, I’ll tell you what. I’m so proud of this team.”
The game was a pitcher’s duel to start, with Oxbridge’s Liana Mullins and the Warriors’ Victoria Perez allowing just a pair of singles between them through the first two innings.
T h e T h u n d e r Wo l v e s threatened in the bottom of the third, putting two runners on with two outs following a walk and a single. The Warriors then switched pitchers, with Brooklyn Maguire coming in for Perez. The junior induced a ground ball to second for the third out.
Mullins ran into trouble in the fourth, allowing the first five runners to reach base — three on walks. A basesloaded walk brought in the game’s first run, and Westminster Christian appeared to have added a second run on a sacrifice fly, but the runner left base early, and was called out.
The Warriors came right back in the fifth, extending their lead to 3-0 on a twoout bloop single by Otero that brought in two runs.
Oxbridge threatened in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with two outs against Maguire, who had been cruising to that point.
Mullins’ RBI single brought home one run, while a basesloaded walk forced home another run to cut Westminster Christian’s lead to 3-2. A strikeout ended the inning.
The Warriors got a run back in the top of the seventh on Benitez’s RBI triple, and Maguire closed out the ThunderWolves in the bottom of the inning to seal the win.