Little League Softball Championships

Coming into the second round of the Lou Caprara District 12 Major Softball Championship May 17, the Palm Harbor Hatch had every reason to be confident. They hung 29 runs on Oldsmar in the first round and had beaten Safety Harbor Fox earlier in the regular season.

But as they say the playoffs are an entirely different ballgame and Safety Harbor proved that, jumping ahead 4 – 0 in the bottom of the first, thanks to tight nerves and a low-hanging sun affecting Palm Harbor’s defensive attempts.

Palm Harbor got the second-inning scoring started with an inside-the-park home run by Daisy Andrews scoring Jacey Goodwin. After walking, speedy second baseman Lainey Degnan stole second and third, eventually scoring. Mollie Hartigan later stole home to tie the game at four.

Safety Harbor scored two more in the bottom of the inning but the rally ended when catcher Hartigan gunned the ball down to third baseman Mackenzie Hatch who tagged out an overly aggressive lead taker.

Emma Huerta, pinch hitting for Katie Williamson, walked, stole second and third and eventually scored on a sacrifice by Andrews to pull within a single run. Palm Harbor recorded its first 1-2-3 inning with back-to-back strikeouts by pitcher Sydney Sutton and a rocket-armed throw by shortstop Erica Spondre to nail the runner by three steps.

After an empty top half of the inning, Palm Harbor allowed four more runs, but a running grab by outfielder Megan Justice and a snag of tricky pop up behind the plate by Hartigan kept the damage from being worse.

In the 5th Degnan did an amazing Rickey Henderson impression: walking, stealing second, then third and on a classic ‘no … no … YES’ call head and third base coach, Marty Hatch. She then raced for home and beat the tag on a wild pitch.

"I didn’t tell her to go," Hatch said, whose mood quickly changed when the ump made the safe call.

The teams exchanged runs in the sixth inning with Safety Harbor winning 11 – 7.