By Jeff Odom
The Carrollwood Day School (CDS) softball team’s best season in program history came to an end April 24 at home against Lakeland Christian in the Class 3A regional quarterfinals.
The host Patriots (10-6) staged a late comeback, but couldn’t hold off the Vikings (19-5) hot hitting, falling 7-4 in nine innings.
It was the first time CDS had reached the playoffs in the program’s three-year history after winning a district championship the week before.
“I’ve coached baseball for I don’t know how many years, but I’ve got a lot of kids in the pros, and I can honestly say coaching these girls, from all those years of championship baseball programs that I ran, this is the most pleasurable,” said Patriots first-year coach Chuck Fest. “More than anything, it’s gratifying to see these kids come out and do things you never expected them to do. I love every one of these girls.”
The Patriots wasted no time getting to Lakeland Christian pitcher Helen Long in the first inning.
A lead-off triple by Emma Frost and an RBI single to left field two batters later from Savannah Bennett gave CDS a 1-0 lead.
The Vikings, who stranded runners on first and second in the first two innings, broke through against CDS starting pitcher Amanda Rose in the third.
Rose walked Brooke Wilsman with one out before giving up five straight base hits. When the dust finally settled, Lakeland Christian led 4-1.
“That’s kind of been our season all year,” Chuck said. “We’ve had one bad inning a lot of times and too many times. That’s the quicksand effect. It’s tough to coach it; you’re trying to calm things down, but all of a sudden one thing bad happens and then another bad thing and they hit the ball … It could have been a lot worse. We’ve had a lot worse.”
The Patriots got a run back in the bottom of the frame when Frost scored from third on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to two.
Rose tied the contest in the fifth off Kristen Beacham. The Vikings reliever opened the inning by retiring the first two batters she faced, but Frost doubled to the left field fence and Samantha Fest was hit by a pitch to give the Patriots two on with Rose coming to the plate.
She didn’t miss.
Rose smacked a two-RBI triple over the center fielder’s head.
“I was actually standing there thinking to myself she’s gonna go yard, but I think we’ve got the biggest porch of anyone around,” Chuck said.
Both teams traded hits in the sixth and seventh, but neither could break the stalemate before extra innings.
In the eighth, the Patriots got runners to first and second with two outs, but Beacham settled down and retire the side to set up a big ninth for Lakeland Christian.
Wilsman opened with an infield hit and advanced to second on an error. She came around to score when Emily Murphy reached third on a fielder’s choice and another CDS error.
The Vikings crossed the plate two more times via a sacrifice fly and base hit to extend the lead to three and secure the win.
“I told the girls that they have nothing to hang their heads on,” Chuck said. “I’ve had more fun coaching these girls than all the years I coached boys.”
