Champion at last: University Christian tops Evangelical Christian for FHSAA softball title

The ball cannoned off the bat, and as University Christian softball coach Keith Stroud watched runners break from second and third, all the memories of the near-misses came flooding back.

"I just thought of all the teams that we've had that just came up just a little short," the veteran coach recalled.

This time, Elissa Murdock stretched out her glove at shortstop. Out number three. University Christian, champions. At last.

Waiting through three years of near-misses, one day of rain and an afternoon of narrow escapes, University Christian finally captured its first state softball title, defeating Fort Myers Evangelical Christian 3-2 in Wednesday's Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A championship.

Jaleigha Harris knocked in the game-winning run in the bottom of the fifth and Sophia Kardatzke went the distance in a gritty outing as UC overcame the disappointments of final-four losses in 2021 and 2022.

"It's amazing," Kardatzke said. "This team, we worked so hard. Coach Stroud put our schedule together knowing that we were going to work as a family, and we came up on top."

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UC SURVIVES TENSE FINISH

UC stranded three runners in the fourth after Evangelical Christian's Zoe Yzaguirre forced a strikeout with bases full, but they didn't let their winning chance slip away in the fifth.

Jahliyah Robinson drew a walk and stole second. One batter later, Harris — among three UC starters, with Kardatzke and Kyla Bennett, to have lined up for the Christians since their sixth-grader seasons in 2018 — got her chance. The junior cracked a drive to left, and Robinson raced ahead with the go-ahead run for a 3-2 lead.

"I just had to remember what my dad told me when I was younger, to choke and poke with two strikes," Harris said.

UC (23-2) still had to survive a tense seventh. Karsyn Mootz drew a walk and Kylie Shaw singled up the middle, but after a grounder to first that could have produced a bases-loaded, no-out situation, Emma Reynolds fired to third to retire the lead runner, who had overrun the bag.

Then, a wild pitch brought the runners to second and third. Kardatzke struck out Samantha Yzaguirre, and cleanup hitter Makayla Jakubuwski followed with a dipping liner toward short, one that could have become a game-winner. Instead, Murdock was ready: "It was really surreal," she said.

"I had to spot that pitch," Kardatzke said. "We were in the right spot, and history happened."

KARDATZKE FIGHTS OFF WILDNESS

After two perfect games in her four playoff outings so far, Kardatzke wasn't quite as perfect this time. She gave up five walks and a hit batter in the first four innings, particularly during a flurry of wildness that allowed the Sentinels to score twice.

But Kardatzke settled down in a 1-2-3 fifth, and then escaped a sixth with help from a pick-off from catcher Kate Dell'Alba as UC punished miscues on the Sentinels' basepaths.

The junior, UC's starter since sixth grade, survived seven walks and two hit batters, getting the outs when she needed them most thanks to her strikeout power (eight in all) and strong defense, particularly from Harris and Murdock on the left side of the infield.

"Knowing our defense, I just had to relax and get those strikes," said Kardatzke, who rounded out a sensational junior year at 22-1.

HISTORY FOR STROUD AND UC

For longtime UC coach Stroud, who has led a multitude of sports teams over portions of five decades at the school — softball, football and basketball among them — victory was a long-awaited milestone after past final four disappointments.

But the dark storm clouds from the Gulf of Mexico, which postponed the originally-scheduled Tuesday final and loomed with menace over the Clermont skies for most of Wednesday's win, nearly threw another curveball into Stroud's game plan.

"There's been rain delays, lightning delays, you get ready to play, you're playing, you're not playing, you're back playing again," he said. "Next thing you know, you're having to wait a whole new day to come back out and play. It's hard to kind of keep yourself motivated and generated to play."

At first, UC looked like giving him a comfortable win after the wait. In the first, Macie Bourgholtzer and Robinson drew walks, and after Kardatzke's fly out to right advanced both runners, UC plated a pair on a Harris squeeze bunt and a Dell'Alba laser double to right.

Northeast Florida's FHSAA softball champions are a select group: Clay (2001), Bishop Snyder (2006), Bartram Trail (2008 and 2009), Eagle's View (2008, 2009 and 2010), Columbia (2013), Baker County (2015), Oakleaf (2017), Union County (2017), Trinity Christian (2019) and Middleburg (2022).

Finally, add University Christian to the list.

"The kids were fantastic," Stroud said. "They just stayed focused, knew what they wanted to take care of, and I couldn't ask more from them."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: High school softball 2023: University Christian-Evangelical Christian