SPRING HILL – What a game. On Friday night, the Springstead Eagles (6-2) came back to defeat the Hernando Leopards (5-5) 6-5 in nine innings. The Eagles weathered the storm of a difficult first frame and clawed back for the late victory at home.
The night started about as rough as it possibly could have for the Red, White, and Blue. The home team surrendered a walk, a bunt, multiple stolen bases, and four points on the first four at-bats. A three-run homerun by Sophomore Murphi Blade punctuated the opening minutes and gave the visitors a blindly quick 4-0 lead, but Head Coach Craig Swartout’s Eagles did not flinch.
“When they put the four on the board in the first inning, we come back to the dugout, and I looked in each girl’s eyes,” Coach Swartout said. “We weren’t panicking. We were okay. We are a young team. For a team to show that kind of composure and awareness of the situation, that is pretty special. They are a good team.”
Springstead’s Pitcher Ava Millier found herself in a tough spot immediately following the homerun. Hernando was sitting pretty with the count being 3-0 and no outs for batter Ammarae Easton. Then, the senior pitcher got to work. She would strike out Easton and another batter and the Eagles would corral a pop fly to stop the bleeding before it became catastrophic.
From that point onward, Miller and her sister, and fellow pitcher, Alivia Miller would shut the Leopards down offensively. Ava blanked Hernando for the rest of her time on the mound and Alivia would surrender only one more score to the visitors in the top of the fifth inning.
Springstead’s head coach rightfully pointed out that falling behind by several scores in the opening frame would be the “death knell” for most any team. He was glad to have a talented one-two punch on the mound to paint the corners and pull the team out of jams.
Defense is all well and good, but the home team needed their offense to show up to get them out of the hole, too. Then, in the bottom of the third, Springstead’s bats started to heat up. Three hits in four at-bats (two of them doubles) led the Eagles to putting a pair of scores on the board.
With only one out, Freshman Lily Klink stole home on a wild pitch and Sophomore Haylee Brown was run home thanks to a deep shot to the fence by Junior Rachel Rivera. Freshman Kamie Pond tacked another run on the board on the very next at-bat when her triple ran Rivera across the plate. Just like that, the Red, White, and Blue had navigated the first inning storm and had brought the score within one.
Hernando would respond in the top of the fifth frame with their final score when Sophomore Ayana Kincade stole home on a wild pitch. Coach Swartout’s crew would waste no time in erasing the remainder of their deficit, though.
In the bottom of the same inning, Junior Kaylana Lyons blasted a double to the leftfield fence. This ran Pond and Ava Miller home and knotted the score at 5-all late in the matchup. There would be close calls on both sides, but neither would cash in again until two extra innings had been played.
In the bottom of the ninth, following a sacrifice bunt by Brown to advance Freshman Lillyanna Day to third base, the home team nabbed the game-ending score. Rivera stepped up to the plate and blasted a shot deep down the first base line deep to send Day home for the win.
Moving forward, the Leopards will look to get back in the win column and get their record back over .500 against Bishop McLaughlin Catholic on March 24. Springstead will look to maintain momentum when they take on Wesley Chapel on March 26 after returning from Spring break. The Eagles’ coach was proud of how his players handled situation with the vacation on the horizon.
“It is tough playing a game and then the next day you go on spring break for 10 days, but I was very proud of the focus. So, it could have been really easy for us to go south, but these girls are a different team. They are a different bunch. We got the older girls, and we have got the younger girls, and they mesh, and it is a real treat for a coach to have a team like this. We are just getting started.”
