Coral Springs Charter rolls to another BCAA Big 8 softball championship
Championship teams continuously find ways to win when it counts most.
The Coral Springs Charter High softball team apparently owns the blueprint when it comes to the BCAA Big 8 tournament.
Led by Heather Roberston, Gio Gurgel and Courtney Wahlbrink, who combined for six RBI, the Panthers rolled to a 9-4 victory over Western on Wednesday for the team's third consecutive Big 8 title at Pompano Beach Community Park.
It was the Panthers (19-3) fifth Big 8 title in seven attempts.
'[Western] is a seasoned team and three games in a row is tough on pitching staffs,' Coral Springs Charter coach Mark Montimurro said. 'They have a lot of good hitters, and we felt they would put a lot of balls in play. They put some runs on the board, but we did enough to come out with trophy.'
Charter has defeated Western seven consecutive times by a combined score of 62-11 since 2019. They finished the tournament, by outscoring their three opponents 26-7.
'Our team has moxie and grit and everybody in the county thought we'd be way down because we lost a lot of players,' Montimurro said. 'They stepped up and played up to their level. With our pitching we can play with anybody.'
Charter took an early 5-0 lead keyed by Roberston's fourth home run in five at bats. She was named the tournament MVP with her four homers and 10 RBI.
'I honestly wasn't expecting it,' Robertson said. 'I was looking for some hits and putting pieces together for the team. I wasn't expecting the home runs. I was just swinging to swing. Today I came out hot and was ready to play hitting a home run in my first at bat.'
The Wildcats didn't cave, rallying for four runs between the third and fifth innings, closing to within 5-4.
Analie Diaz, Kennedy Butter and Emma Konieczny had consecutive RBI singles in the top the third inning and Butter added another RBI singles in the fifth inning.
'It's frustrating, but there's a silver lining and that's that we fought to the end,' Western coach John Bradshaw said. 'I was super proud of the girls fighting to the end. Mark's teams never quit and he's got us three years in a row.'
The Panthers seized the Wildcats (15-5-1) comeback bid in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Addi Michel had an RBI bunt single, which was followed by an RBI single to left field by Gurgel and a two-RBI double to left by Wahlbrink a five-run advantage.
'We can up too flat, but we did bring it up throughout the game,' Gurgel said. 'When our pitching and hitting come up big, we win.'
District play begins next week with Coral Springs Charter and Western as No. 1 seeds.
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