Six Orlando-area softball teams in FHSAA state semifinals ties record

Six Orlando-area softball teams advanced to next week’s FHSAA state final four, tying a record set in 2018.

Class 7A Hagerty, 7A East Ridge, 5A Winter Springs, 3A Eustis, 2A Cornerstone Charter and 1A Geneva are all headed for the state semifinals at Longwood’s Boombah Sports Complex. Play begins Tuesday.

A record seven teams advanced to the state final four in 2018, when the FHSAA split softball into nine championship classes. Now there are eight.

The teams playing in the 2018 semifinals were Timber Creek, West Orange, Hagerty, Lake Mary, St. Cloud, Trinity Prep and CFCA. Hagerty won the Class 8A state title, Lake Mary won the 7A crown and Trinity Prep took the 3A championship. West Orange lost in the 9A championship game and CFCA lost in the 1A final. St. Cloud lost in a 5A semifinal.

Winter Springs captures Class 5A state softball championship

Four of the teams - Hagerty, Winter Springs, Eustis and Geneva - all qualified for last year’s final four, and all four of them played in the state title games.

Winter Springs was last year’s Class 5A state champion, Hagerty was 7A state runner-up, Eustis was 3A runner-up and Geneva was 1A runner-up. The last time Cornerstone was in the state championships was 2018, when the Ducks were the 3A runners-up, while the last appearance for East Ridge was 2021, when the Knights lost in the semifinals.

“The talent speaks for itself. There are some really good, quality players in this area and you can see that in where some of them are heading off to school. It’s a highly recruited area,” Geneva coach Jared Icanelli said. “The girls are getting bigger and strong and they’re playing year-round. The advancement of the game has been pretty impressive to see and watch over the years.”

The ability to play all 12 months of the year helps build the talent pool and with the addition of more travel-ball teams, Icanelli said that also helps.

“There’s just more availability out there, so some of the mid-tier girls have the ability to play and hone their game in different areas,” Icanelli said.

Icanelli’s squad lost to Evangelical Christian of Fort Myers last year in a slugfest 17-14.

“Every time we go on that field I like our chances to be competitive with the mentality, the make-up and character of my girls,” Icanelli said. “The experience (last year) is something you definitely take into consideration. I think our girls tend to not let the moment get too big for them, which is great to see.

“They fight and they play hard so (experience) will definitely be something that will help us out, but I think they’ll got out there and play their game like they normally do.”

State Softball Schedule

(at Boombah Sports Complex, Longwood)

Tuesday

Class 7A semifinals, 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Rural semifinals, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Class 1A semifinals, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.

Wednesday

Class 2A semifinals, 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Class 7A championship, 1 p.m.

Rural championship, 4 p.m.

Class 1A championship, 7 p.m.

Thursday

Class 3A semifinals, 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Class 4A semifinals, 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.

Class 2A championship, 5 p.m.

Friday

Class 5A semifinals, 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

Class 6A semifinals, 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.

Class 3A championship, 5 p.m.

Saturday

Class 4A championship, 10 a.m.

Class 5A championship, 1 p.m.

Class 6A championship, 4 p.m.

Chris Hays can be found on X.com@OS_ChrisHays.

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This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 2:14 PM.