By Jeff Odom
Academy at the Lakes coach Jerry English tried to find the words to sum up his softball team’s loss to St. Petersburg Canterbury in its first trip to the Class 2A state semifinals May 10.
“We hustled and made some very, very good plays and got some timely hits,” English said. “We were in (the game), but the mistakes we made were youthful.”
Blunders got the best of the Wildcats (12-6), who led early, but committed five errors in the fifth inning. The top-seeded Crusaders (20-11) pounced on the mistakes to score 10 runs and pull away with a 13-3 six-inning victory at the Vero Beach Sports Complex.
“(Our) young kids are learning how to play the game, English said. “They didn’t do it on purpose. … (Canterbury) is a very good team and we were out-athleted.”
The Wildcats got on the scoreboard in the first when Katherine Smith singled to right field with one out, shortstop Lauren Evans walked on four pitches and Sydney doubled them both home to make it 2-0.
AATL made it 3-0 in the fourth when Skyler Boynton drove in Brenna Wilson with two outs.
Not much went right for the Wildcats after that.
The Crusaders opened the fifth with runners on second and third with one out. A fielding error by the AATL infield, and another at the plate, made it 3-2.
Canterbury took its first lead just one batter later when Kama Woodall cleared the bases with a clutch two-run double.
From there, the Crusaders never looked back.
The Wildcats committed two errors at first base and two more in the outfield. By the time they were able to get out of the inning, Canterbury had taken an 11-3 lead.
The Crusaders finished off AATL in the sixth when Kelsey Hill singled home a pair of runs, and the game was called because of the mercy rule.
“I was so pleased with the girls and their never give up attitude,” said Canterbury coach Jody Moore. “They made me very proud; everybody picked each other up, and I thought we did a really great job of coming from behind.”
In the region finals, the Wildcats used a five-run fourth inning to defeat Quincy Munroe 9-4 at Live Oak Park May 6.
The Bobcats (10-9) didn’t make AATL’s route to the final four easy, as they opened the first inning with three runs off of two errors by the Wildcats’ infield.
AATL would bounce back in the third as Evans, who was intentionally walked three times by Munroe starting pitcher Jerri Sloan, and Marie Aumaitre both scored off dropped fly ball errors by the Bobcats to cut the deficit to one.
In the fourth, AATL took its first lead and never looked back when a pair of walks and another Munroe error loaded the bases for the Wildcats with no outs.
Skyler doubled home a pair of runs to give her team a one-run lead. Then, after a fielder’s choice added another run, Sydney kept the rally going with a two-RBI double of her own to the left field fence to make it 7-3.
“We survived the three runs early on, and we knew we had to get them back,” English said. “We were playing for one run at a time. Everyone came through from the one through nine.”
The Bobcats added a run in the fifth, but that’s all they would get as AATL scored two more in the sixth to pull away.
“I’m just excited that we were able to get the win today,” Sydney said. “It felt really good to not have a lot of them get big hits and my defense, after that first inning, did really well, so I was really happy.”
