Pitching struggles cut short Westminster Christian softball’s bid for 6th state title
Westminster Christian softball coach Scott Doan has sometimes sat on the team bus after a season-ending loss at state and wondered what could have been done differently.
Not on Wednesday afternoon though.
It was pretty clear what went wrong for the Warriors during an 11-4 loss to Tampa’s Academy of the Holy Names in a Class 3A state semifinal at Legends Way Ball Fields in Clermont.
Westminster Christian (23-7), which was making its seventh consecutive appearance at the state final four and chasing its sixth state title, fell behind 5-0 after only an inning and a half and never recovered. Holy Names (18-5) will vie for its first state title when it plays Windermere Prep on Thursday in the final.
Junior Isabella Artiles and freshman Madeline Diaz struggled with command throughout the game, issuing a combined seven walks and surrendering 15 hits including a pair of home runs.
On the flip side, Jaguars pitcher Annabelle Sardja contained a Westminster lineup that had hit .405 entering the game and produced 33 home runs and 246 runs during the season to only four runs. And two of those came over the final three innings once Holy Names had built an 11-2 lead.
“It’s hard to say [why they struggled],” Doan said. “[Sardja] pitched really well and we didn’t have the hits to offset it like we did last week in the regional final [against Oxbridge Academy]. Those walks and then they had the timely hits that made it pretty hard to overcome all that.”
Artiles twice walked batters, which set up two-run home runs by Jaguars senior shortstop Rachael Petrarca, a Providence College signee, and sophomore center fielder Camryn Feast during a four-run second inning.
Diaz replaced Artiles after 2 2/3 innings, but she didn’t fare much better, allowing an RBI single to sophomore Genevieve Chiellini. The Warriors cut the deficit to 6-2 in the bottom of the third, but the Jaguars freshman third baseman Keala Hollenkamp’s RBI single off Diaz pushed the lead back to five runs. Holy Names put the game out of reach by scoring four more runs in the fifth off Diaz and Artiles who re-entered the game with two outs in the frame.
“You just kind of have to tip your hat to the other team,” Doan said. “They played better than us and got the job done.”
Sophomore Dani Alvarez went 2 for 3 and senior shortstop Hailey Donovan went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
The game capped a phenomenal season for Donovan, a Stetson University signee who broke the school record for home runs previously held by Ole Miss standout Aly Mena with 16 this season. Donovan hit .505 and also nearly broke the school’s RBI record by driving in 52 runs.
“She was the driving force at the plate for us,” Doan said. “Sometimes she doesn’t even get all of it but she’s so strong she can still lift it over the fence.”
Donovan is one of two seniors along with senior Lindsey Burroughs, an FIU signee, on the Westminster roster. The Warriors return the rest of their core, giving them a chance to make it eight consecutive trips to state next season.
“You get on the bus and you start thinking about how to get back up the road again,” Doan said. “What could we have done differently? Probably not much. They just beat us today.”