Coral Springs Charter softball overcomes Somerset Silver Palms roadblock
Coral Springs Charter’s softball players could have let the gloom and doom overtake them on Tuesday night.
The Panthers were once again facing their playoff nemesis, Somerset Silver Palms, in the postseason.
And after five innings, they were facing the possibility of watching their season end at their hands for the fourth consecutive season.
But Coral Springs Charter decided enough was enough.
A three-run sixth inning that was highlighted by a clutch two-run double by Addi Brown proved to be the difference for the Panthers to avoid reliving their nightmare scenario as they flipped the script on Somerset with a 3-2 comeback win in a Region 4-3A semifinal at Palmetto Bay Park.
“It was the adrenaline, and in those moments, you want to save the team,” Brown said. “At that moment, I was just saying, I need to do this for them. Everybody having good at-bats gave everyone else the confidence they needed.”
For the Panthers (20-4), who have not won a state title since winning five in a row from 2015-2019 and haven’t made it to the final four since 2022, it was one major hurdle cleared.
Another awaits.
One of the Panthers’ assistant coaches was overheard telling their players in the postgame huddle: “We slayed one dragon, now we have to slay another.”
Coral Springs Charter will face much-improved and nationally-ranked Cardinal Gibbons on its home field on Thursday afternoon with a berth at state on the line. The Chiefs are 26-1, ranked 19th in the nation by MaxPreps, and led by Stanford commit Lydia Berent in the pitching circle.
Gibbons, which advanced by beating St. Brendan 10-2 on Tuesday, are 2-0 against Coral Springs Charter already this season. But each game was decided by one run.
“We don’t owe it to them, we owe it to ourselves,” Brown said. “We have to get this one and slay that ‘dragon’ on Thursday.”
It looked like Coral Springs Charter was headed for more heartbreak at the hands of the Stallions (21-6) after they struck for two runs in the bottom of the fourth on a two-run home run to center field by Caylee Cerda.
But Panthers starter Courtney Wahlbrink, who struck out 11, walked two and allowed three hits overall, silenced Somerset’s bats from that point on.
Eighth-grader Aly Vincze opened the sixth with a leadoff triple. Somerset starter Ava Stevens struck out eight, walked two and allowed five hits over seven innings. Stevens struck out Leah Rutherford on the next at-bat. But strike three hit the dirt and Somerset catcher Kayla Diaz hesitated to throw to first allowing Rutherford to reach. Vincze scored on a fielder’s choice ground ball by Cameron Thiele. Gio Gurgel followed with a single and Jazzy Chung followed with another single that nearly tied the game. But Thiele was thrown out at the plate by Somerset left fielder Zoe Matos for the second out.
That set up Brown’s big hit.
“This year, we said let’s lock it down,” Wahlbrink said. “Once we scored those runs, I knew we would be dominant.”
With two strikes, Brown took a pitch that appeared to be in or very near the zone, but was called a ball. She struck the next pitch and sent it into the outfield to score Gurgel and Chung with the eventual winning runs.
“We’ve tried to stay in the moment, and not look back or look forward and our offense did a good job of that tonight,” Coral Springs Charter coach Mark Montimurro said. “We didn’t have success against (Stevens) early, but we stuck with our plan, and usually when we give Courtney three runs, it’s enough.”
