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District softball roundup: River Ridge takes out top seed

 
Anessa Holes and a staunch defense help River Ridge to a 2-1 victory over top-seeded Land O’Lakes.
Anessa Holes and a staunch defense help River Ridge to a 2-1 victory over top-seeded Land O’Lakes.
Published April 16, 2015

NEW PORT RICHEY — Anessa Holes appreciated the early run support, but given the opponent, figured she'd need a little more. Instead River Ridge rode its flyball pitcher and a consummate defense to a 2-1 defeat of top seed Land O'Lakes in the Class 5A, District 8 semifinals Wednesday.

No. 2 Tarpon Springs (14-7) avoided a similar scenario against host Gulf, overcoming its early deficit for a 3-1 victory. Spongers senior Lindsey White tossed a three-hitter, striking out eight. White's RBI double, a hard groundball that went all the way to the wall, capped the three-run Sponger uprising in the fifth.

River Ridge (16-7) and Tarpon meet for the championship tonight at 7. The Spongers are in the playoffs for the first time since 2004, third time in school history.

While the Royal Knights have made the playoffs 10 years in a row, they were seeded fourth and Land O'Lakes (24-3) had won 11 straight. Madisyn Palmer led off the game with an infield single, stole second and scored on a wild pitch. After Holes walked, Teah Steel doubled to the wall for the second run.

"Once it was 2-0 I figured we'd push over some more runs," Holes said. "But as the game went on, I realized their pitcher was pretty tough to hit. And I was going to have to rely on my defense."

Shannon Saile, who no-hit River Ridge in early March, only allowed one Knight base runner the rest of the way. But Holes and Co. proved just as stubborn. Third baseman Allysa Lyons made two big plays, one an assist from her knees to end the third when the Gaby Santiago had doubled to make it 2-1.

Holes got the start over No. 1 Makenzie Goluba for matchup purposes, figuring her riseball would be better suited against the hard-swinging Gators, who only struck out three times but committed two-thirds of their outs through the air.

"We knew we'd get a lot of pop-ups, which makes it easy on the defense," said centerfielder Palmer, whose team made five errors while nearly blowing a 10-run lead in a 15-12 quarterfinal win vs. Sunlake. "We were confident we could score more runs (for Anessa), but two were enough, I guess. We plan on scoring more (today)."

Like River Ridge, No. 6 Gulf got on the board early. Haley McCarthy's triple brought in Alicia Boloyan, who had singled. But the Bucs (11-12) only got one hit for the remainder. Tarpon tied it in the first when Kelsey Linn singled, Madison Montgomery bunted her over and Gulf threw a wild pitch.

After a costly dropped third strike, Julie Allen provided the go-ahead single and scored on White's double. White picked up her 15th win and 12th complete game, while raising her batting average above .500.

Britney Pressler threw a complete game for Gulf, striking out seven.

Leto nabs region spot

TAMPA — The Leto players weren't born when coach Kelly Hacker-Carpenter discovered the team-oriented philosophy of softball. The Falcons have learned from her past.

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For the second time in Hacker-Carpenter's four years — and the fifth time in school history — No. 2 seed Leto earned a postseason berth Wednesday with a 3-1 victory over third-seeded Jefferson in the Class 6A, District 9 semifinals. The Falcons face No. 1 Chamberlain tonight in the championship game. The Chiefs defeated No. 5 Armwood 15-0 in a game that was halted in the third inning by the mercy rule.

Leto (16-5) scored three third-inning runs and withstood several threats by Jefferson (12-6), which was held to one seventh-inning run despite getting 10 runners on base in the final four innings. Senior first baseman Carrie Reynolds and junior catcher Yvette Leto played key roles in two double plays, including a game ender when a Dragon was cut down at the plate with the team's top hitters coming up.

Junior pitcher Kimberly Dick was clutch in relief. After winner Marcella Parrado loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth, Dick escaped unscathed with two strikeouts and a ground ball before finishing up.

Don Jensen, Times correspondent