VERO BEACH
Before the game, coach Frank Luther and assistants Shawn Schmoll and Ron James took turns telling the Bayshore High softball players how no one expected them to make it to the state final.
Heck, after Friday’s semifinals, Coral Springs Charter coach Mark Montimurro scrambled to find information on the Bruins, as he expected to be facing Glen St. Mary Baker County in the championship game.
Bayshore third baseman Susan Blue is flipped by Coral Springs Charter runner Lindsey Garcia in the FHSAA Class 5A State Softball Final on Saturday at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
“We expected Baker,” he said. “I had to gather a scouting report on Bayshore late yesterday.”
For four innings Bayshore stood toe to toe with the defending Class 4A state champion Panthers.
The final three innings got away from the Bruins defensively and Coral Springs Charter walked away with its second straight state title after a 9-2 victory over the Bruins despite two home runs from LaShara James on Saturday morning at Historic Dodgertown.
Bayshore committed six errors, five in the final three innings. Four of the nine runs allowed by pitcher Miriam Schmoll were unearned, as the visiting Panthers scored two in the fifth and sixth and broke it open with five in the seventh.
“When I look back at the errors we made that cost us the big innings, the game should have been 1-zip us because Shara hit a home run,” Luther said. “You take away all the errors, that’s probably the outcome. But that happens. When it does, it seems to be contagious. It grabbed us and bit us today.”
Pitcher Miriam Schmoll, left, and catcher LaShara James go through their routine before Bayshore's game against Coral Springs Charter in the FHSAA Class 5A State Softball Final on Saturday at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
Luther said nearly have of his players do not play softball year-round on the travel ball circuit and some of their inexperience on the diamond reared its head Saturday.
“All season long, the ball has done a pretty good job of staying away from them,” Luther said. “Today, it got to some of them. The errors we made cost us the game.”
The hastily prepared scouting report Montimurro received indicated that the Bruins were not as strong a defensive team as others he faced this season. And the veteran coach employed an offensive style aimed at testing Bayshore’s defenders.
“Chop it into the clay, put pressure on teams, especially in games of this magnitude, and expect a mistake, a breakdown, some team to combust,” he said. “You’re not going to take three big swings against stud pitchers like that. Our goal is to push it, push it, push it, find a seam, aggressive base running, force the opponent into mistakes. And it worked today.”
Coral Springs Charter (26-3) broke through in the fifth inning. A walk, one of two issued by Schmoll, and an error placed runners on second and third with one out and No. 3 hitter pitcher Allison Muraskin at the plate.
Coral Springs Charter's Kayla Scaperrotta is out at first on a close play as Bayshore's Courtney Ueltschi makes the putout in the FHSAA Class 5A State Softball Final on Saturday at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
Schmoll got ahead 0-2 in the count before Muraskin began fouling off pitches.
“We were hitting her inside, hitting her inside and I threw a pitch in there and she drove through it,” Schmoll said. “Great hit.”
Muraskin drove the ball deep down the left field line for a two-run double to break open the scoreless game.
James hit her first homer of the game in the bottom of the fifth, a bomb to dead center field, to cut the deficit in half.
“I was just trying to put the ball in play, not necessarily put the ball over the fence,” she said. “If it happens it happens.”
The Panthers came back with two more runs in the sixth, using three hits and two more Bayshore errors.
“I threw my pitches effectively. That team is pure travel ball. Those girls know how to play,” Schmoll said. “They know how to hit. I expected the ball in play. I didn’t expect that many strikeouts that I got. To see the ball get hit out there, we made errors. I had to calm down and keep throwing my pitchers.”
Schmoll really had to catch her breath and control her emotions when Coral Springs Charter batted around and put five runs on the board to put the game out of reach.
Bayshore's LaShara James connects for her second home run of the game against Coral Springs Charter in the FHSAA Class 5A State Softball Final on Saturday at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
“Miriam pitched a better game than their pitcher, and she pitched a great game,” Luther said. “We can’t give them five outs an inning. If we do that, it’s going to be tough to win.”
Schmoll allowed nine hits and struck out 10, throwing 86 of her 121 pitches in the strike zone.
“She’s up there, top four or five,” Montimurro said of Schmoll. “The difference is the team behind her defensively was average. That’s why you can’t go up there swinging because you’re going to strike out 17 or 18 times and you’re never going to challenge their defense. So you have to have a game plan.”
“I wouldn’t want to catch any other pitcher,” James said.
The senior catcher, who is heading to the University of South Florida, put the final point on the board for the Bruins (17-4) with another homer to center field with two outs in the seventh.
“I just hope that’s what my first at-bat in college would be like,” James said.
James popped up to second in her first two at-bats, reaching base one on an error.
Members of the Bayshore High softball team pose with the runner-up trophy after losing to Coral Springs Charter, 9-2, in the Class 5A state title game Saturday at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
“She’s that type of athlete who knows she can hit, and she gets a little anxious,” Luther said. “I told her the first two at-bats she got anxious and she popped them up. She relaxed the next two at-bats and did a beautiful job. That’s the kind of player she is. She’s a phenomenal athlete.”
“That kid was a stud offensively,” Montimurro said of James. “Very athletic. Live bat. Tremendous bat speed.”
Intentionally walked in her previous at-bat, up came Schmoll with two outs in a 9-2 game. Again, Muraskin elected to throw four balls intentionally out of the strike zone to her counterpart.
“It’s a little frustrating,” Schmoll said. “I understand it’s part of the game. It’s a technique and they utilized it. It didn’t hurt my batting average.”
“When they pitched to Shara, I thought they would pitch to Mim, too. And they didn’t,” Luther said. “That was kinda poor to me. That’s his team. He coaches it like he coaches it, and I coach mine. I didn’t like that, but it is what it is.”
Bayshore's Miriam Schmoll delivers a pitch against Coral Springs Charter in the FHSAA Class 5A State Softball Final on Saturday at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach. STAFF PHOTO / DENNIS MAFFEZZOLI
Montimurro had a reason for the strategy.
“Ali wanted to finish the game with a strikeout,” said the coach after his fourth state title. “She has been a warrior for us for two years, so I say, ‘Go for it.’
“It’s not traditional. It’s not customary. In that situation, she wanted the strikeout. What Ali wants she usually gets. Pitchers are unique. They have their own tendencies. They are different in a good way.”
A junior committed to the University of Central Florida, Muraskin did end the game with a strikeout, her 14th of the game. She allowed three hits, the other to Schmoll, who went 1-for-1 with a hit by pitch.
“I knew it was going to be a battle of pitchers,” Schmoll said. “I knew they were going to put the bat on the ball. It was just whether or not we were going to execute effectively. We made a few errors and that’s why the score was 9-2.”
Bayshore reached the state final for the first time in program history and was bidding to become the second Bruins team to win a state title, joining the 1993 boys tennis team.
“Amazing. Truly it is amazing,” said Schmoll, a junior. “We made Bayshore history. We made history with our county. I’m very thankful, very blessed.”
One of three seniors on the team along with Ashley Keenan and JoJo Muldoon, James summed up her career: “I did phenomenal. I'm proud of the way I ended it,” she said.
Luther hopes more players join the travel softball circuit to avoid a repeat of their defensive performance in the state final.
“We had a great season, a great run. I’m proud of the girls,” the nine-year coach said. “I’m telling them to keep their heads up. Hopefully, a lot more will play travel ball over the summer so they can get better. Hopefully, we can get right back to the same spot.”
