Early struggles too much to overcome for Doral softball team in state semifinal
Doral Academy’s presence at the state softball final four is nothing new.
The Firebirds arrived on Friday for the sixth consecutive season, seeking to repeat as Class 6A state champions, and win their third title over that span.
It was a new experience, however, for freshman ace Camila Diaz.
After a dominant first season as Doral’s top pitcher, things unraveled quickly for Diaz and the Firebirds during a nightmarish six-run third inning.
Eventually it would lead to a 10-8 loss to Bartow on Friday afternoon in a Class 6A state semifinal at Boombah-Soldiers Creek Park.
Doral (26-3), which entered the game ranked No. 1 in the state overall and 20th nationally by MaxPreps, made numerous uncharacteristic mistakes in addition to Diaz’s struggles against the Yellow Jackets (28-3).
“Everything we usually don’t do happened today…a couple of errors early, and (Bartow) did their homework,” Doral coach Willie Viruet said. “You could see they were making adjustments at the plate. If someone was going to take us down, I’d rather it’s against a team like Bartow. They do a great job.”
Bartow totaled 11 hits overall and capitalized on three Doral errors. Diaz, who exited the game in the third and later re-entered in the fifth, was charged with eight earned runs over 5 ⅔ innings.
“This up here is different. You come here and have a whole town show up against you, you have to learn how to handle it,” Viruet said. “We didn’t help her defensively either. “It’s a lesson she’s going to carry with her for a long time. It’s a learning experience.”
To Diaz and Doral’s credit, the Firebirds did not fold, and nearly pulled off a miraculous comeback after trailing 10-2 heading into the sixth inning.
Ashley Tremont, who entered in relief of Diaz in the third and got Doral out of the inning, pitched 1 ⅓ scoreless innings. Bartow tacked on four more runs in the fifth once Diaz returned to the circle before Tremont helped the Firebirds trim the deficit to 10-4 with an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth.
In the seventh, Doral kept chipping away. Melanie Sweet roped a two-run triple into the gap in right center to cut Bartow’s lead to 10-7 with one out. Sweet scored on a sacrifice fly by Anely Gonzalez.
But with two outs and the bases cleared, Kyla Paul popped up into shallow right field to end the game.
“It’s a shot to the gut to see them celebrating so they’re going to remember this, and we’ll be back,” Viruet said. “We put the ball in play and got some runs back, but we didn’t get those early and had too many strikeouts at the beginning of the game. That’s not us. We usually adjust better. But hey, hats off to Bartow.”
