BROOKSVILLE – The Villages Charter Buffaloes (9-7) bested the Brooksville-based Sharks (9-7) by a deceptively close 11-4 score on the road on Friday night. Despite the lopsided result, the matchup was tied until the penultimate inning when the visitors’ bats exploded for nine runs across the final two frames.
“I think we just strung a few hits when we needed them,” said Villages Charter Head Coach Juliann Woulard. “We got the couple runners on early on in the game, but I think the momentum also of them scoring, them tying the game, and the [Sharks] getting life encouraged us to come then and answer back.”
Besides a pair of scores for the Buffaloes across the second and third innings, defense was the name of the game until late in the fifth frame. Then, the final two and a half periods saw the squads score 13 of the night’s 15 total points.
To Head Coach Jug Olmstead and the Sharks’ chagrin, nine of those would go the way of the Buffalo. This was despite the fact that Junior Caitlin Corrigan’s timely single in the bottom of the fifth, which ran Sophomore Hailey Raenke and Junior Athena Brown across home plate tied the game at two-all heading into the sixth.
The visitors did much more than that. After a nice snag and throw out to first base by Sophomore Izzy Miller, Junior Layla Farrish belted a double to the fence. Following an Elaina Gonzalez single, the Buffaloes’ bats blew up for four runs on the next four at bats.
“Top six we came out and got four or so runs which then put all the momentum back in our court, here,” Coach Woulard said. “It is a game of momentum, so we got all of it.”
Sophomore Zoey Schutt’s double got things started by running Farrish across home plate. Then, Senior Alexa Galewski, seventh grader Alexis Swetnam, and Junior Lexy Sanchez batted in the remainder of the scores in the second to last inning.
The Sharks managed to respond with one point in the bottom of the sixth when Miller single handedly scored by stealing all the way from first to home plate thanks to wild pitches.
With the momentum still squarely in their corner, the Buffaloes put the game away with five more scores in the final frame. A single by Schutt’s hit allowed Sophomore Payton West and Farrish to advance home before a Galewski triple on the next at bat effectively ended the night with two more scores. The visitors’ head coach was happy to see this development.
“We had a couple girls that have been struggling to get on base, even just struggling to hit the ball hard and barrel up,” said Coach Woulard. “We had a couple of breakthrough moments here. I only have one senior, and she came out, I think she had two or three hits tonight, which was great. Bottom of the lineup was absolutely phenomenal […] I was really happy to see bottom get to the top.”
Moving forward, Villages Charter will look to continue building momentum heading into the back end of their schedule. They will travel to face the Santa Fe Raiders on Monday. The Sharks will hope to get back on track when they play at Fivay on Monday.
