West Orange, Eustis advance
In state softball semifinals Friday in Vero Beach, the West Orange girls defeated Miami Palmetto 11-0 and Eustis rallied for a 9-5 victory over Wauchula Hardee.
VERO BEACH — West Orange arrived at Historic Dodgertown with a vengeance in defense of its Class 9A softball state title.
The Warriors, ranked No. 3 in the Sentinel Super Six, scored six runs in the second inning Friday in Vero Beach and rolled to an 11-0 state semifinal win over Miami Palmetto. The game ended after six innings due to the 10-run “mercy rule,” a rarity in large-class final four games.
Senior pitcher Lauren Mathis was dominant in the circle, striking out eight and allowing just one hit through four innings.
Landry Newgent took over and capped off hitless innings in the fifth and sixth by striking out the final two batters.
“I felt very confident in my pitches today, and having Landry come out and close it was a big thing for us,” Mathis said.
West Orange faces the winner of Jupiter and Palm Harbor University, which played the late game Friday, in the state final today at 8:05 p.m.
Junior Lexie Blair went 3-for-5 with four runs batted in and sophomore Amanda Denis was 2-for-4 with two runs scored. The Warriors had 10 players safely reach base as they tallied 11 hits and advanced on walks seven times.
“We worked so hard this week on what we were going to see,” West Orange coach Todd LaNeave said. “Showing up here was not as overwhelming [as last year] because we have 10 girls on this team that were here then. They knew what to expect and what everything was going to look like.”
The Warriors scored first when Cassie Rivard drew a bases-loaded walk in the second inning. Blair doubled to center field in West Orange’s next at-bat to drive in two more and jump-start the rout.
“We kind of took it as just another game, we weren’t really thinking of it as a state semifinal,” Blair said. “We didn’t want to get too overconfident and it turned out really well for us.”
Blair extended the lead to 11-0 in the top of the sixth when she drove in two more on an in-the-park homer, the first of her prep career.
“It kind of struck me by surprise,” Blair said with a smile. “Right when I hit it down the line I was thinking triple all the way, then I saw coach waving his arms. I didn’t know where the ball was, but I kind of had it in my mind that I had it.”