Cooper City softball continues recent dominance of CS Charter to repeat as BCAA champs

After winning a record five consecutive state titles from 2015-19 and basically dominating the landscape of softball in Broward County over a five year span, Coral Springs Charter has finally met its kryptonite.

It’s come in the form of the Cooper City Cowboys.

For the second year in a row, the same two teams met in the BCAA Big 8 championship game and for the second year in a row it was Cooper City’s girls storming the center of the field following a 5-3 victory Thursday night over the Panthers at Pop Travers Park in Plantation.

A year ago Cooper City (16-2) recorded a 7-5 win over CSC for the BCAA title and just five weeks ago, the two teams met in a regular season showdown at Cooper City and the Cowboys also prevailed 1-0. That game featured a pitchers’ duel between Charter’s Bri Godfrey, a Marshall commitment, and Cowboys ace Jordyn Hustey.

Everyone that showed up for Thursday’s championship game was expecting more of the same. But neither pitcher was sharp as Charter coach Mark Montimurro had to pull Godfrey in the fourth inning (a rare occurrence) and Hustey battled all night as she only had one three-up, three down inning while allowing at least two runners in the other six innings.

It was the Cowboys’ bats that came through as they plated one run in the second and third innings to grab a 2-1 lead before Kirsten Caravaca came through in the fourth with a two-run double to right center to put Cooper City up 4-1 and give Hustey the breathing room she needed.

“Just a terrific game between two really good programs and anytime Mark (Montimurro) wants to play us, we’ll play him,” said Cooper City coach Phil Schmalz. “Because even though we’re getting the better of it right now, even if it doesn’t go our way, when the two of us play, it makes both of us better. We push each other and that makes us better when the playoffs arrive.”

Godfrey remained in the game at third base and, perhaps a little hot from her struggles on the evening, took it out on the softball as she led off the top of the fifth with a tape measure shot over the center field fence for a solo homer to make it 4-2.

When Heather Robertson and Kate Maston led off the top of the sixth with back-to-back infield singles, the Panthers were in business and Hustey was in a jam again.

Then came the key play of the night when Stina Dagostino hit a deep grounder in between third and shortstop that would’ve likely been another infield single and loaded the bases with not outs. But the ball hit Robertson as she was running to third and she was called out for runner interference. Hustey then struck out Olivia Taibl for the second out and got Addi Michel to ground out to third to work her way out of another inning.

The Cowboys then added to their lead in the bottom of the inning when Caravaca doubled to right center and came home on a pair of wild pitches. With Godfrey on second and two outs in the seventh, Steph Basso ripped a shot to left center scoring Godfrey but was out at second trying to stretch it into a double, ending the game.

“I was definitely on and off tonight and didn’t have my best stuff,” Hustey said. “My spins weren’t working but when that happens, you just have to find a way to work through it and grind it out. Fortunately my teammates had my back including this one here (pointing to Caravaca) as they came up with big hits and got us the runs we needed along with great defense to come out on top. A great night for us because it feels great to win this back-to-back, especially beating Charter again because they’re such a great program.”

There were plenty of offensive heroes on the night for the Cowboys but Caravaca led the way as she finished 3-for-3 at the plate with two doubles, 3 RBI and a run scored.

“My mentality tonight was just to go up there and find a way to make contact and at the least move runners along and find a way to get people in,” Caravaca said. “Mainly it was just don’t strike out, protect at the plate, make contact and do what I could do to help my team. I’m happy I was able to contribute. Beating Charter is so cool because beating a team like that is us proving a point that we can beat anybody going forward and that really gives us a ton of confidence.”

These two teams, arguably the two best in Broward, are in different classifications (Cooper City 7A, Charter 3A) so this will be the final time they meet this season but future dates against each other is inevitable.

Coral Springs Charter (12-3) had its 10-game winning streak snapped with the loss.

This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 9:45 PM.