They received their runner-up medals and trophy, fought back tears, and did their best to deal with the pain of having a state championship dream ripped away.
Here in Clermont on the final Saturday of May, the Pace Patriots chasing the program’s first softball title in nearly two decades, a storybook ending wasn’t in the cards for a team that made it its mission to finish the year on top of the 6A softball world.
Shelby McKenzie took a breath. Locked in. And swung her bat.
What resulted was a three-run home run to center that, while not the official ‘game over’ moment for Pace, it was the turning point for the Patriots in their 6A state semifinal showdown with Land O’ Lakes Friday at the Legends Way Ball Fields in Clermont.
The University of West Florida baseball team saw two of its own recognized this week.
Mike Jeffcoat has been named the coach of the year in the Gulf South Conference and Dalton Neuschwander has been tabbed the Pitcher of the Year for the conference.
Rewind to the 2020 spring sports season. It seems like a lifetime ago in some ways because of how different the world was then in the midst of a pandemic.
The current seniors who will receive their high school diplomas this week were only freshmen at the time. Their spring seasons were cut short just a few weeks in.