Cruisers capture 18U Nationals
The South Florida Cruisers weren’t satisfied with a fifth-place finish last year at the 18U FAST Nationals. They returned this season with many of the same players and even greater determination.
That combination created an unstoppable force.
The Cruisers – made up of 13 girls from Southwest Florida – went 10-1 overall and won all six games in the double-elimination tournament to capture the championship at the 2009 18U FAST Nationals, which concluded Saturday in Ocoee, near Orlando.
There were 29 teams entered, including one from Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Current and former high school players from Cape Coral, Mariner and Ida Baker are among the five schools represented on the Cruisers, along with players from Riverdale and Moore Haven.
The roster includes recent Baker graduates Caitlin Holloway and Kayla Vetter, and senior Allie Hare; Mariner senior Nikki Roderiques and junior MacKenzie Hunt; and Cape High senior Tara Higgins.
Riverdale players Ally Herring, Liana Derringer, Allora Miller, Kasee Tucker and Staci Jones, and Moore Haven players Ashanti Shephard and Kara Anderson joined them.
“We’re an all-area team,” manager Scott Gould said. “Other teams had two or three players from one area and two or three from another part of the state, but this team was strictly based out of this area. That made it extra special.”
Gould, who currently is an assistant at Baker High, has coached the travel team for 11 years, along with coaches Adam Derringer and John Miller.
Until last summer the team was known as the South Florida Scream, before changing the name to the Cruisers.
The current group began pool play in the FAST Nationals last Monday and compiled a 4-1 record. Their only loss in pool play came against the defending champion, Virginia Storm, which had several players from Division I Radford University.
The four pool play victories all were shutouts. Roderiques fired a two-hitter in an 8-0 win over the Twisters in the first game and strong pitching continued with Derringer and Vetter. Derringer went 5-0 overall on the mound and did not allow an earned run.
The Cruisers won all six games in bracket play, culminating with a 5-2 win over Team Hammer in the championship game Saturday. Roderiques allowed two runs in six strong innings, and Derringer closed it out in the seventh.
The Cruisers trailed 2-1 in the sixth inning, but put together a four-run rally. Herring went 2-for-3 and Hare had two hits, including a triple, to lead the offensive attack.
One of the key victories along the way was a 7-6 win in eight innings over the Virginia Storm, the team that handed the Cruisers their only defeat in pool play.
Hunt belted a home run that sparked the Cruisers to a 6-1 lead. The Storm rallied to tie the game and send it to extra innings, but the Cruisers scored the go-ahead run and continued on their path to the title.
For winning the tournament, each team member receives a championship ring from Jostens.