Braden River softball holds off Mitchell to reach region championship
The Braden River High School softball team scored six runs in the fourth inning and held off Tampa Mitchell, 7-4, in a Class 7A-Region 3 semifinal on Tuesday in Tampa.
With the victory, the Pirates advance to face Fort Myers, the District 12 champion, on the road Friday. Braden River beat Fort Myers 6-1 last year in a region final at home.
Coach Melissa Dowling will hope for a repeat of Tuesday’s offense.
Six Pirates (24-5) had two hits as part of a 14-hit attack. Six of those came in the fourth, when Braden River had its first six batters reach against Mitchell starter Ashley Autuori. Included in the sequence were doubles by Sarah Crawford, Jade Moy and Brooke Farrow. Farrow’s double drove in two runs. All three finished with two hits. Farrow finished with three RBIs.
For a brief time, it appeared as though Braden River would need all six of those runs.
Starter Ali Yawn cruised into the fifth with a shutout, but ran into trouble in the fifth, giving up three runs and leaving with a runner in scoring position. Autuori’s two-run triple highlighted Mitchell’s inning.
Reliever Maddie Lindsley gave up an RBI single to make the score 6-4, but she ended the uprising with a strikeout, a batter called out for being out of the box and a fly out. She allowed only one more runner over the final two innings. Yawn earned the win and Lindsley the save.
Myah Moy added two hits, including a triple (she scored on a throwing error on the play), and two RBIs. Kali Reis finished 2 for 4 and Casey Farrow was 2 for 3 for the Pirates.
Arcadia DeSoto County 3, Bayshore 1: The Bruins’ latest postseason run is over, shy of a second straight trip to the Class 5A semifinals. Bayshore (15-5) never led against DeSoto County, falling behind 2-0 early before stumbling to the Class 5A-Region 3 semifinal loss in Arcadia.
DeSoto advances to the region championship Friday. The Bulldogs will host Wauchula Hardee with a spot in the state semifinals on the line.
Baseball
Tarpon Springs East Lake 1, Lakewood Ranch 0 (9): Despite seven scoreless innings for pitcher Colton Zimring, the Mustangs’ season ended with a pitcher’s duel loss to East Lake in Tarpon Springs. Zimring, a Florida signee, struck out 11 batters before exiting for extra innings during the Class 8A-Region 2 quarterfinals.
The Eagles finally broke through during the ninth against pitcher Pablo Garabitos, a South Florida commit. A passed ball with two outs in the bottom of the ninth sent Paul Phillips, who had entered as a pinch runner, racing all the way home from second base for the walk-off win.
“I just kept running as soon as I saw the ball go to the backstop,” Phillips said.
East Lake will host Sarasota in the region semifinals next Tuesday.
Lakewood Ranch (15-13) could never manufacture such luck against Connor Churchill, the Eagles’ starting pitcher. Churchill went 8 2/3 innings, scattering eight hits and striking out eight in a 107-pitch outing.
This story was originally published May 9, 2017 at 11:52 PM with the headline "Braden River softball holds off Mitchell to reach region championship."