A slow start for Eustis in Friday’s Class 3A softball state championship at Boombah Soldiers Creek Park in Longwood led to a tough finish.
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Coral Springs Charter scored all six of its runs in the bottom of the first inning, and hung on for the 6-3 win.
It’s the second straight runner-up finish for Eustis (22-7) in its fourth trip to the state championship game in six years.
“I think we had some first-inning jitters and getting used to the umpire’s tight (strike) zone,” second-year Eustis coach Tyra Bowers said. “After that first inning, it was a whole different ball game.”
Senior starting pitcher Carson Roden struggled a little with two hit-batsmen, three hits and a walk in the first inning, and the defense behind her had two errors. In the five shutout innings to follow, Roden gave up only one hit while striking out three.
Eustis actually had twice as many hits as their Panther counterparts, but Coral Springs Charter pitcher Courtney Wahlbrink managed to escape multiple innings with timely strikeouts.
Eustis scored its first run in the second inning on an RBI single from Brooklynn Mason, but left the bases loaded.
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Another run in the fourth helped Eustis inch closer. Three of the first four batters reached base with a sacrifice bunt in between. But after an RBI single from Skyler Scott, the South Florida team got the lead runner out at third on another bunt attempt.
Coral Springs (23-4) claimed its sixth state title — the first since they won five in a row (2015-19).
“The girls went down fighting and swinging,” Bowers said. “We did our best to try to come back after the first inning.”
Eustis brought the tying runner to the plate in the seventh inning. Adrianna Covino led off with a single and was brought home on a double by the next hitter, Emma Fleming.
After two strikeouts by Wahlbrink, Brooklyn Powhida singled to bring the tying run to the plate, but Wahlbrink finished the game with her eighth strikeout to end the comeback.
“It wasn’t an easy season for us,” Bowers said in retrospect. “We struggled at times, fought through adversity. We laughed, we cried. I told them they should hold their heads up and be proud of what we accomplished.”
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Scott, Powhida and Covino each had two hits in the loss.