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Sweatt whiffs six for Oakleaf state title

Randy Lefko
Posted 5/25/17

VERO BEACH – Oakleaf High smashed a gauntlet of teams lined up against them in the five-game state series to the Class 8A softball championship with a 6-1 finale Saturday at Vero Beach’s …

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Sweatt whiffs six for Oakleaf state title


Posted

VERO BEACH – Oakleaf High smashed a gauntlet of teams lined up against them in the five-game state series to the Class 8A softball championship with a 6-1 finale Saturday at Vero Beach’s Dodgertown Stadium against Wellington High for the school’s first team state title and just the second state title in softball for a Clay County high school.

“It still hasn’t settled in,” said senior pitcher Kelsey Sweatt, who finished with six strikeouts among her 27 strikeouts in the five playoff games. “I felt like this season was my last shot. I was zoned in with my catcher and heard absolutely nothing despite the big crowd.”

Clay High did the trick in 2001 and with that, a connection was had in 2017. That connection was from Oakleaf High coach Christina Thompson, who in her start as Oakleaf High’s first and only softball coach, achieved the dynamic double of winning state titles in a sport as a player and then as a coach. Thompson has been the only head coach at Oakleaf High School and has had the Lady Knights into the region playoffs since 2011, though, until 2017, the ride ended ungracefully before the mysterious state championship round of the playoffs.

“Christina wanted the team to concentrate on what we did well and not what the other teams did,” said assistant coach Rob Thompson. “There are very few people that can say they were state champions, but Christina was a special athlete and a special coach to do it twice like this.”

With an impressive 44 runs scored versus just one run scored against, in the state final, the Lady Knights destroyed opponents along the way with a combination of bats and baserunner speed and savvy and the arm of senior pitcher Kelsey Sweatt, who rifled three of the best batting lineups in Class 8A mercilessly. Behind Sweatt, the infield quartet of Baylee Goddard, Mika Garcia, Alex Acevedo and Bishop Snyder transfer Angela Agurkis from third to first base, respectively, kept the basepaths uninhabitated for most games, and unable to get past third base in nearly all of them.

For Acevedo, who was point man at second base with a core group of players who have been teammates since their Oakleaf Junior High days with coach Paul Marsh.

“Honestly, it is the best feeling in the entire world because ever since we were little, this is the only thing that we have wanted,” said Acevedo, a senior. “People sometimes don’t get that we actually did work day in and day out to get here. No days off.”

In region play, Oakleaf won 10-0 over Tallahassee Lincoln; 10-0 over Atlantic Coast and 8-0 over Wharton; while executing four-time state champion St.Thomas Aquinas 10-0 in a show of force that ramped up to a next level against the historically Final Four powerhouse Raiders before Saturday’s seventh inning explosion against Wellington topped off an early 2-1 lead to bring the 6-1 finale.

For Goddard, who wielded a heavy bat all season, the mid-season Kissimmee Klassic title won over the Kentucky state champs, was the turning point for the season. Goddard’s story centers around the motivation she got from her dad, Johnathan Goddard, Sr., who was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident in 2008. Goddard, Sr., was an Ed White High star and an All-American defensive end at Marshall University who had encouraged Baylee to take her pronounced softball skills as a youth as “far as she could go with it”.

“I wanted to make my dad proud by winning the title this year,” said Goddard, just a sophomore but already committed to play at the University of Florida, currently ranked number one in the nation, and set to play Alabama in the NCAA super regionals on Thurs., May 25. “We did the 370 day countdown from our loss last year (region finals) and after the Kissimmee win, we were on a mission. The ‘zero’ day in the countdown was today.”

Sweatt, headed to University of South Carolina-Upstate, struck out four against St. Thomas Aquinas and six against Wellington to control both games from the mound and not give either team any easy run-scoring opportunities. Against Atlantic Coast, Sweatt blasted four batters with reliever Madi Davis knocking out three in relief. Against Wharton, Sweatt stifled eight batters in that win and, against Lincoln, Sweatt needed just five in the mercy-ruled first shutout of the playoff season.

Against St. Thomas Aquinas, Oakleaf scored three runs in the third, fifth and seventh innings to prolong the mercy-rule attempt by the Knights. Acevedo yielded the big bat with three runs batted in on five at-bats. Acevedo hit a triple in the fourth but failed to score when Rebecca Koskey hit a fly ball out. Oakleaf scored their first three runs in the third off singles to Acevedo and Koskey and an error on a hard grounder from Goddard.

Three more runs came in the fifth with singles to Agurkis and Goddard and errors off hits from Garcia and Pacetti.

In the seventh, three more runs came from Garcia, after being hit by a pitch, a walk to Jenna Curtis and singles to Kistler and Acevedo.

Wellington, after Oakleaf quickly got to a 2-1 first inning lead with bunts from Katie Kistler and Acevedo putting Kistler at second, fell behind off a double from Agurkis for a 1-0 quick lead.

“I was feeling the pressure of the state championship game, but I just took a deep breath and knew I wanted to bring the run in,” said Agurkis, a junior. “I calmed myself down and just hit the ball and she threw me inside which was my best pitch to hit.”

Willis would strike the next run in with a hard grounder past second base to score the game 2-0 and give Oakleaf a feel of another blowout in the making.

Wellington answered as abruptly in their first at bat with a run-scoring triple past Goddard at third with a runner at first.

From the second inning to the seventh, both teams showed off their defensive prowess and left both dugouts trying to break the ice on the field.

Wellington struck first after two quick three out innings with a triple again after a strikeout putting some anxiety in the Knights dugout.

A check swing grounder to Sweatt was misplayed at first to keep runners in play, but Willis blocked home plate to stop the threat before Sweatt struck out the final batter.

“Ball first, tag runner was all I was thinking,” said Willis, a senior. “It was such a gamechanger play. It was really like slow motion.”

Oakleaf’s bats were hitting the ball, but the Wellington defense was in position to put the stop on any scoring threats.

In the bottom of the fourth, still up just 2-1, Sweatt got hit with a double after a flyout then came back to finish the lineup with another strikeout to leave the baserunner at second base.

In the fifth, Oakleaf could only hit pop outs. Oakleaf’s defense raised up squelching three batters with Goddard snatching two grounders and Sweatt outing a bunt attempt.

In the sixth, with Oakleaf wanting an insurance run, Wellington got three flyouts.

Goddard and Sweatt combined to leave two baserunners with a hard grounder getting bobbled by Goddard and a walk setting up a possible game tying situation, but Sweatt got a strikeout and Goddard ran down a foul ball for an out.

In the seventh, Garcia walked and advanced with a Destiny Pacetti bunt that put baserunners at first and third. Kistler popped out in front of Acevedo who smashed a hard grounder to score Garcia with Koskey bunting to fill the bases with the score 3-1. Tracey Ferguson squeezed Pacetti over home plate with a bunt. Agurkis got a walk to score the game 5-1 with Willis hitting a shot to right field to score Acevedo and give Oakleaf the 6-1 lead.

“Christina’s philosophy was to hit early, bunt late,” said Rob Thompson. “With the hitting team that we had, let them rip and if it’s close late in the game, you do what you need to get runs across which is what we did.”

A right field flyball to Koskey and a Sweatt strikeout finished off the game for Oakleaf.