MaxPreps honors Lakewood Ranch’s softball freshman

The future remains bright for the Lakewood Ranch High School softball team and no individual is more important to the long-term outlook of the program than Avery Goelz. On Thursday, the slugger’s monster freshman season was recognized by MaxPreps, which named her to its freshman All-American team.

Goelz finished her freshman campaign with a Class 8A-best 12 home runs and 43 runs scored. Her .552 batting average, .631 on-base percentage and 1.115 slugging percentage gave her one of the best offensive seasons in Manatee County and helped Lakewood Ranch reach the Class 8A-Region 3 championship game.

The Mustangs spent most of the season as the top-ranked team in 8A and finished the season ranked third in the state, according to MaxPreps.com. Goelz was named the classification’s Hitter of the Year by Miracle Sports.

Goelz is the latest softball star in a family. Kinsey Goelz, Avery’s older sister, will play in the Premier Girls Fastpitch All-American Game on July 28, which will be televised by ESPNU. Avery Goelz has already orally committed to Florida.

Lizardi gets start for Puerto Rico

The U-20 Puerto Rico women’s national football team is off to a 2-0 start in pool play at the Caribbean qualifying tournament for the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship. Camryn Lizardi, a rising senior at Braden River High School, started at left center back in Friday’s 6-0 victory against Antigua and Barbuda in a game played in the Dominican Republic.

The Puerto Rico national team has one game left in Group C, against the Dominican Republic, on Sunday. Then the knockout stage will begin. A top-two finish at the qualifying tournament will send Puerto Rico into the eight-team draw for CONCACAF Women’s U-20 Championship in Trinidad and Tobago, which begins in January.

The top three finishers at the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) tournament qualify for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, which will be held in France next August.

Bradenton CC breaks ground

Bradenton Country Club is adding pickleball courts to its list of amenities, and the club broke ground for the new courts Friday.

Pickleball is similar to tennis. It is played on smaller courts and the net stands at 34 inches in the middle of the court.

Bradenton Country Club plans to provide lessons and clinics about the sport when the courts are complete.

“The sport is simple to learn and beginners are often playing on their own by the end of one lesson,” Bradenton Country Club tennis director Jack Steyn said in the club’s announcement. “Pickleball is a fun game of shot placement and patience, not brute power or strength, which is one reason why it appeals to players of all ages.”

This story was originally published July 21, 2017 at 7:25 PM with the headline "MaxPreps honors Lakewood Ranch’s softball freshman ."