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Bloomingdale Majors softball headed to state again

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By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: July 18, 2009

LAKEWOOD RANCH – Going into the Little League Majors Section 4 girls softball tournament at Manatee East, managers of Bloomingdale and Land O' Lakes felt the tournament would come down to the Saturday game between these two teams.

They were right.

Bloomingdale, behind the strong pitching of Emily Withworth and game-winning single in the seventh inning by Rachel Farinas, earned another trip to the state tournament with a 1-0 win against Land O' Lakes.

The win sends Bloomingdale to Coconut Creek to defend its Majors (11-12-year-olds) state title. Last year, Bloomingdale finished second in the Southern Region tournament last year, the final step before the World Series.

In three games at Manatee East, Bloomingdale outscored its opponents 28-0 but Manager Mark Braddy knew his team would need a challenge if they were going to be prepared for next week's state tournament.

"Going in [to section], one of the things we wanted was to be challenged," Braddy said. "We needed to see what our defense was like. We have a lot of girls that are equal in talent so t makes it tough as coaches to decide who's going to be playing."

They received that challenge from Land O' Lakes. Withworth only gave up three hits to Land O' Lakes and only once did Land O' Lakes get a runner to third base. But defense kept Land O' Lakes in the game.

In the third inning, Bailie Braddy received a 2-out walk and went to third when Taylor Farrell reached on a throwing error. When the overthrow to home was wide of the plate, Braddy attempted to score but Land O' Lakes catcher Grace Olsen retrieved the ball and threw to pitcher Amanda Rose, who applied the tag on Braddy.

In the sixth inning, Shannon Eckaus, Farinas and Briana Hazel hit consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs. But Kayla Newsome hit a sharp line drive to Sierra Holt at third base, who tagged Eckaus out for a double play. Right fielder Rebecca Hannah got Land O' Lakes out of trouble when she made a diving catch off the bat of Whitworth to end the Bloomingdale threat.

In the first extra inning, Bloomingdale once again had plenty of base runners. With one out, Jenna Bestwick singled to shortstop. Braddy followed with a single to left and Farrell singled to center to load the bases. One batter later, Farinas, with a 0-2 count, hit a solid single to left to score Bestwick.

"It was two great pitchers and two great defensive teams," Braddy said. "In that last inning, we finally got base runners in the positions we needed with the right people coming up [to bat]. [Land O' Lakes] is a great team. It's a shame only one teams gets to win."

Bloomingdale finished with 12 hits, all singles, while Land O' lakes only had three. But Land O' Lakes manager Earl Evans couldn't say enough about his team.

"Our girls did fantastic," said Evans. "It was a great pitcher's duel. We just didn't get that key hit when we needed it."

Both teams had to play a second game to complete pool play. Bloomingdale defeated North River American (Palmetto) 12-0 in a game mercy-ruled after 3½ innings while Land O' Lakes downed Plant City 6-2 to finish second in the section.

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