Coral Springs Charter softball caps long road back to state championship
First, Coral Springs Charter “slayed dragons” just to get to state.
Then, they became the dragon themselves, returning to a place that had been so familiar to their program nearly a decade ago.
Coral Springs Charter struck quickly and decisively on Friday, scoring six runs in the first inning and later holding off Eustis for a 6-3 victory in the Class 3A state softball championship at Boombah-Soldiers Creek Park.
The Panthers (23-4) ended a seven-year title drought that stretched to when they matched a state-record winning five championships from 2015-2019.
“It feels surreal. I can’t believe we just won,” Coral Springs Charter junior pitcher Courtney Wahlbrink said. “Our offense was on point today. We hit all week and that helped me so much in the (pitching) circle.”
It was Coral Springs Charter’s sixth title overall…and likely one of its sweetest after what the Panthers overcame to obtain it.
“We had to get through two teams that had been problematic for us. Once we did, we felt like this was in reach,” said Coral Springs Charter coach Mark Montimurro, who has led the Panthers to all six of their state titles and has won eight overall in his career.
“It’s a new group, and I wasn’t really sure about this season at the beginning. When you win it, it’s a little bit sweeter. This is something you always dream about as a coach.”
After three seasons of being eliminated from the postseason by Somerset Silver Palms, Coral Springs Charter finally beat the Stallions in the regional semifinals.
One of the Panthers’ assistant coaches remarked after the win, “We took down one dragon, now we have to slay the other.”
The other was Cardinal Gibbons, the team ranked No. 1 in the state led by ace Lydia Berent, a Stanford commit.
The Panthers took them down in the regional finals.
“It makes this 10 times better,” said senior catcher Gio Gurgel, who hit 10 home runs this season. “We showed we put in the work even with younger girls, we still got the job done. I feel like I really did my best to get the home runs in situations we needed it. Getting the team going. I think we did a great job to keep each other accountable.”
Gurgel got Charter’s big first inning on Friday started with an RBI double, which scored Alyson Vincze. Freshman Jazzy Chung drove in two more with a single. After she scored on a wild pitch, sophomore Bree Martinelli doubled into the gap in left center to make it a 5-0 lead. Senior Leah Rutherford’s well-placed bunt two batters later, drove in the sixth run.
Eustis (22-7) answered with a run in the second, taking advantage of a Charter error, and could have scored two more had it not been for a diving catch made by sophomore Gyensynn Courtney to end the inning. The umpires discussed briefly whether Courtney came up with the ball cleanly, and ruled she had.
Eustis scored another run in the fourth and threatened again to come back in the top of the seventh after Adrianna Covino singled, and Ella Fleming doubled to cut Charter’s lead to 6-3.
Wahlbrink settled down after that and struck out the following three batters in order to send the Panthers rushing toward her in the circle to celebrate.
“A lot of pressure, but I knew we were hitting their pitcher well,” Wahlbrink said. “Every single run counts and everything mattered, and everything that everyone did was important.”
With a relatively younger team this season, Coral Springs Charter struggled at the plate early in the season when facing top-tier competition.
But as the season progressed, the Panthers made adjustments and ended up averaging eight runs per game once the postseason began. It ended up being a key reason they were able to overcome some of the best pitching in the state to become champions once again.
“We did a good job learning who we could trust in certain situations and get the little jobs done,” Gurgel said. “Even when it wasn’t big hits, in the gap hits, the little bloopers to get runners on. We were struggling to get runners on, but today we did a better job getting the runners on and we just got them all in the first inning.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 10:04 AM.
