BROOKSVILLE – The Springstead Eagles (1-0) opened their softball season with a dominant 16-5 victory over the Nature Coast Tech Sharks (0-1) on Tuesday night. The Red, White, and Blue scored early and often in their lopsided win at the Shark Tank, but the Eagles’ head coach gave the home team kudos for never backing down.
“Give Coach Olmstead and his crew a bunch of credit because once they got down seven-eight runs, they could have shut it down, but that is not the trademark of a Jug Olmstead team,” Coach Craig Swartout said. “They are going to fight you until the last pitch, and that is what they did.”
Despite staring down an 11-2 deficit in the bottom of the sixth inning, the team in Columbia Blue loaded the bases with no outs and proceeded to put a trio of scores on the board. The home team fought well, but their cross-county rivals simply had too much firepower.
With his team holding a less comfortable six-point lead, Coach Swartout made the call to swap pitchers. Senior Pitcher Ava Miller had performed admirably throughout the night, but with the home team beginning to stack runs late, Coach Swartout brought in the younger Miller.
Sophomore Alivia Miller had already contributed in a big way two innings prior with a two-run homer. Now, the underclassman was being brought in to close out the game, and that is exactly what she did.
She showed both sides of her game on Tuesday. Two strikeouts and zero runs allowed over the final inning-plus in which she played, in addition to the aforementioned homerun, shows just how dangerous of an asset the sophomore can be for the Eagles.
With 16 total runs scored, she was not the only contributor in Springstead’s blowout season opener. With runners on first and second in the top of the fourth inning, a hit down the first base line by Freshman Audrina Savarese turned in-field home run when she and two other Eagles players made it across home plate.
In addition to Miller’s sure pitching to finish out the match, Springstead’s bats came alive in the final frame to help erase all doubt for the visitors. Of his team’s hitting throughout the night, Coach Swartout noted, “I’m not sure how many we had total, but we had a few, which was good to see.”
Despite the strong night in several areas, the Eagles’ coach felt that his squad “struck out too much” and that there was “a weird vibe tonight.”
He credited Coach Olmstead’s crew for never giving up and opined that perhaps some of the issues were due to it being the first game of the season. “Whatever it is […] a win is a win,” Coach Swartout said. “We will take it, but we need to get better quick.”
