For the second consecutive year both Hernando and Nature Coast Tech softball squads are headed to the playoffs. Both teams relied on their starting pitchers Wednesday night in the Class 5A District 7 semifinal games to punch their ticket to the postseason.
The night cap of the doubleheader featured a battle of finesse pitching verse power pitching with finesse winning out. Hernando’s Courtney Riddle outdueled Brooksville Central’s Kaeleen Koehler to send the Leopards to the playoffs. The senior right-hander rewrote the record book in the 4-1 Hernando win. Riddle won her 24th game of the year, a new school record for wins in a season. The previous record of 23 was held by Chrissy Hartley. Riddle also recorded a season-high 14 strikeouts. Her previous season high of 10, ironically enough, also came against Central. The Bears (6-20) managed just two hits off the senior.
“She does so much for us,” said Hernando head coach Kevin Bittinger. “She just attacked the zone. Even when she got behind hitters she worked right back to it. It was a phenomenal effort.”
Riddle faced 27 batters and walked just one, the 26th batter she faced. Only one batter in the Bears lineup didn’t strikeout – Sierra Lucas.
Three of the four Leopard runs came in the third inning. A leadoff walk by Erika Lewis followed by back-to-back infield singles by Megan Lane and Danielle Harvey brought Hernando’s No. 3 hitter, Tana McDaniel, to the plate to keep the rally going. Central shortstop Skylar Heyward mishandled McDaniel’s grounder allowing Harvey to score for a 1-0 Leopard lead. After Koehler struck out Riddle for the second out of the inning, Summer Solovitch smacked a two-run single to increase Hernando’s lead to 3-0.
Central’s Aaliyah Roberts scored the lone Bear run. After getting hit by a Riddle pitch to lead off the sixth inning, Roberts scored on a Koehler single. Hernando would add a fourth run in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 4-1.
In the first semifinal of the day Nature Coast Tech head coach Ernie Chatman turned to a freshman to get the Lady Sharks back to the playoffs.
Abbey Primavera, in her first high school playoff appearance, delivered in fine fashion. Primavera gave up just one run, scattered four hits through seven complete innings and faced just five batters above the minimum on the way to a 7-1 win against Zephyrhills.
“She tried to keep them off balance tonight and it worked very well,” Chatman said of Primavera performance.
The freshman was two outs away from her third shutout of the season and the team’s eight. A one-out triple in the seventh by Alexis Christopher followed by a RBI groundout by Selena Tinajero though got the Lady Bulldogs on the scoreboard.
Getting on the scoreboard wasn’t a problem for Nature Coast.
The Lady Sharks (22-3) jumped on Tinajero, the Lady Bulldog’s starting pitcher, in the bottom of the first inning. After a leadoff single by Kat Gonzalez, No. 3 hitter Chyloe Gonzalez smacked a single up the middle. With runners on the corners, Courtney David brought Kat Gonzalez home for the first run of the game with a ground out to shortstop. The Sharks next batter, Brittany Rodriguez, singled home Chloe Gonzalez for a 2-0 Nature Coast lead.
The Lady Sharks added an unearned run in the second inning. Facing a 3-0 deficit and a spot in the playoffs on the line, Zephyrhills coach Jeff Hupp went to the bullpen in the third inning with hopes of stopping the bleeding. Lady Bulldog ace freshman Cassidee McCullough got the call and proceeded to retire her first three batters she faced.
McCullough’s 1-2-3 inning in the third though was not an indication of things to come. In the next three innings, the freshman faced 18 batters, gave up four runs and nine hits.
A Celine Kordon RBI single brought home Brittany Rodriguez in the fourth to increase the Nature Coast’s lead to 4-0. An inning later, the Lady Sharks added two more runs. Kat Gonzalez led off the fifth with a single. That was immediately followed by a Brianna Harvey triple bringing Gonzalez home. The 5-0 Nature Coast lead increased to 6-0 with Chyloe Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly scoring Harvey. A second Chyloe Gonzalez sac fly in the sixth that scored Kordon was the seventh Lady Sharks run.
Thursday’s district championship game between the two bitter Hernando County rivals isn’t a game that either team will have to find motivation to get up for.
“I don’t think you have to saying anything and you shouldn’t have to say anything,” said Chatman. “You really shouldn’t. If you have to say something then there is a problem.”