It may have taken a day longer than they’d hoped, but Eau Gallie High School’s softball team punched its ticket to the Florida High School Athletics Association’s Class 4A, Region 2 final with a 5-2 over Merritt Island in a game that began on Tuesday and concluded on Wednesday.
The two teams played on Tuesday for less than two innings, but the limited time was enough for Eau Gallie to build a 3-1 lead.
The Commodores plated three runs in the bottom of the first inning courtesy of an RBI single by Evie Martin and a two-run double by Jordan Stout, who also earned the win with a complete-game pitching performance. The Mustangs were able to get on the scoreboard in the top of the second inning by way of an RBI groundout from Elena Rollen.
The Commodores then got runners on second and third with one out in the bottom half of the inning when play was halted and eventually postponed until Wednesday.
“I knew yesterday there was going to be a lot of bad weather,” Stout said. “I came in expecting that. Today, I also expected some bad weather but that just didn’t occur but I feel like yesterday, we were just really hype in the dugout. I knew it was going to be hard pitching in that rain but I knew I could switch the ball out as many times as I wanted. There’s no rule to that. Today, I knew they were going to come out hot ‘cause they were hitting us yesterday so I came out today knowing that I really needed to prove something.”
When the teams returned, Eau Gallie added another run to their total as an RBI sacrifice bunt from Ainsley O’Dell got the lead to 4-1.
The score would remain at that point until Martin added another RBI single to put Eau Gallie up 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning.
“From top to bottom, there’s so many good hitters,” said Stout of the Commodore lineup. “And it’s so hard to figure out who’s going to be in that spot. It’s like a fight for the lineup and it’s changed so much throughout the year and I think we’ve found our rhythm on where it should be and where everybody’s place is at but I feel as though when everybody’s on, it’s absolutely amazing. But some people have off days but other than that, we are doing really good.”
Merritt Island demonstrated tremendous resolve all game and showed it again in the top of the seventh inning as the Mustangs were able to get the tying run to the plate. The Mustangs even scored a run with an RBI groundout from Mady Hardin to bring the score 5-2 but Stout, who pitched a complete game for Eau Gallie, got two subsequent strikeouts to preserve the victory for the Commodores.
Stout and Eau Gallie benefitted from solid defense throughout, and especially from Isabel “Izzy” Gambill, the Commodore right fielder, who had several impressive catches in right field.
“Izzy’s been doing a great job,” said Eau Gallie head coach Gabe Caride. “She’s been holding her own definitely in right field but she’s a true athlete. She’s been playing right field for us. She’s played second base for us. She pitches for us so she’s an all-around teammate. She’s a great player.”
Caride downplayed the impacts that stretching the game out over multiple days had.
“I don’t think it was that much of a challenge,” Caride said. “I think that they’re used to it. Most of these girls play travel ball. They’re used to playing in some bad weather here and there but for the most part I had a lot of confidence.”
The game was a rematch of two previous meetings this year between the Commodores (23-3) and the Mustangs (11-15) with Eau Gallie having earned a 16-2 victory on Feb. 24 and a 6-1 win on April 14.
“We all know it’s going to be a good game when we face Merritt Island,” Stout said. “They’re such a gritty team and they always pull runs together and I knew this game was going to be good and I was coming out expecting for it to be like that.”
Eau Gallie will host second-seeded Lake Wales on Thursday night in the regional final. The game is a rematch of last year’s regional final that was won by the Commodores by a 3-1 margin.
“There’s good coaches on the team,” Caride added. “They’ve got about 4 or 5 coaches that know what they’re doing. I really think that it’s going to be a nice little battle, competitive game.”