Cape hosts Lely in 5A-12 finale
It took an extra day longer than expected, but the Cape Coral Seahawks are where they expected to be – back in the District 5A-12 softball championship game.
The Seahawks (18-7) downed Golden Gate 14-3 on Wednesday to set up Thursday’s district title showdown against Lely. Lely got past Immokalee 10-4 in Wednesday’s other semifinal.
Rain on Monday in Collier County pushed the first round of the District 5A-12 tournament back one night, delaying the rest of the tourney. Cape Coral had to wait an extra 24 hours to get into action while Golden Gate (9-17) eliminated Cypress Lake in the opening round.
Still, the final results Wednesday sounded awfully familiar. The Seahawks did exactly what they had done a season before – beat Golden Gate to earn a spot in the district title game against Lely.
“A rematch,” Cape Coral coach Joelle Frantz said. “A re-do from last year.”
If last year’s script continues to play out tonight, Cape Coral will repeat as district champs, having defeated Lely once again in the tournament final.
Last year’s district title game was a 5-3 Cape victory over the Trojans.
The Seahawks won both regular-season games against Lely by scores of 10-5 and 5-3.
“We wanted this game bad, to get to that championship again,” Frantz said.
While Wednesday’s 14-3 final reads like the game was a breeze, the Titans still had a shot until the bottom of the sixth inning. Cape Coral, leading 7-3 at the time, doubled its score to end the game with runners still rounding the bases.
“Golden Gate usually is one of our tougher teams,” Frantz said. “That’s a good pitcher (Matty Springs). That’s a good team. Everything fell into place and we executed everything we wanted to.”
Makenzie Buss began and ended the Seahawks’ monster rally. The leadoff hitter opened the bottom of the sixth with a triple. One out later, she came home on Cheyenne Krolczyk’s bunt single. Things kept rolling from there. The next six batters all reached for Cape before Buss came back up to the plate. She ripped a ball officially that went into the books as a two-run double. She and Mikinzi Ferran still rwere unning when the umpires called the game.
Cape jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning. With two outs, Ferran tripled in two runs. Buss, Kerry McLaughlin and Krolczyk drove in Tritons’ runs in the inning.
“We were focused today,” Frantz said. “We wanted to get ahead early. We get ahead early and we get the confidence to keep building. That’s exactly what happened today.”
Golden Gate got one run back in the fourth, answered on Krolczyk and Danielle Smith’s RBI singles in the bottom of the fourth for a 7-1 Cape lead.
From there, the Titans did their best to make a game of it. Four straight Golden Gate batters reached base. With the score 7-2, the bases loaded and one out, Cape pitcher Buss got her team out of a jam by inducing a ground out and adding a strikeout to put an end to the threat.
Buss went 5-for-5 at the plate Wednesday, scoring three runs and driving in three. Heather Dubay had three hits, two runs scored and an RBI. Krolczyk was 3-for-4 with two RBI. Ferran reached base three times and scored twice. And Allison Slaughter had two hits and two runs scored.
“I have great hitters all the way down (the lineup),” Frantz said. “Today everybody showed up to play.”
Baseball
Mariner 1, LaBelle 0: Mason Eicher pitched five scoreless innings, surrendering four hits while striking out four, and scored the game-winning run with one out in the fifth inning Wednesday night to lift Mariner past LaBelle 1-0 in the second round of the Battle of the Boarder tournament at Terry Park.
Christian Velez led the Tritons with a RBI single in the fifth to drive in Eicher and seal the win. Logan Hanick pitched two innings of scoreless relief with one strikeout.
The Tritons (14-9) face an opponent to be determined in the championship game of the tournament on Thursday.