Dewaters' bat, Kidwell's arm send South Fork softball back to state

STUART — Mike Tyson's famous phrase of everyone having a plan until they get punched in the mouth applied directly to what the South Fork softball team faced early in Friday's Region 4-5A championship game.

Immediately falling behind two runs before they got their first hacks at the plate, the Bulldogs punched back like champions.

Four first inning runs including a two-run home run from sophomore Abbie Dewaters backed junior ace Katie Kidwell, who buckled down the rest of the way to send South Fork to an 8-3 victory over Pembroke Pines Charter, securing the program's first trip to a state semifinal since 2017.

The scenario was one that Bulldog head coach Trevor Rolle had even told his girls before the game began Friday to expect adversity to hit at any time and to be ready to respond — to which South Fork's offense did when they needed to the most.

"Literally before the game, I said no matter how the first half of the first inning goes even if we get busted in the mouth, we'll be able to take it," Rolle said. "And they showed it and owned up to it and performed. That's what I liked to see."

The Jaguars (19-9) immediately jumped on Kidwell as a leadoff walk to Mia Hernandez back-to-back doubles from Alessandra Nunez and Megan Rasmussen put the visitors ahead three batters in but Kidwell was able to strand Rasmussen at third base with one out to limit the damage.

Emma Ortiz singled with one out, setting up Dewaters, South Fork's leader in home runs and RBIs to swiftly answer back for the Bulldogs as she lofted a fly ball that just got over the wall in center field to tie the game.

"I just went up to bat knowing that I had to have my pitcher's back and just get back on the board," Dewaters said. "I was looking for my pitch inside and I got it."

With two outs, the Bulldogs (17-5-1) went to work as a single from Elli Hernandez and back-to-back walks drawn by Kidwell and Mackenzie Cisco on full counts set up Abby Tango to drop in a bloop single to right field plating two more runs to give Kidwell a lead to work with.

The junior right-hander settled in, retiring from the first inning forward 12 of the next 14 Pembroke Pines hitters and was staked to more cushion in the fourth as a sacrifice fly from Ortiz and Dewaters coming through with a two-out, RBI single on a 3-0 count to left field giving South Fork a 6-2 lead.

Kidwell helped herself by hitting a single in the fifth and eventually coming in to score on a wild pitch and in the sixth stranded a pair of runners to hold the lead at 7-2.

Abbey Moore's RBI single in the bottom of the sixth gave the Bulldogs an 8-2 lead needing three more outs that proved to be more difficult than they wanted in the seventh.

After Kidwell retired the first two batters, a pair of walks and two singles would scratch across a run for the Jaguars put a final ground ball to shortstop was fielded by Dewaters, who threw across the diamond to her sister Alice to secure a victory the program has longed for six years in the making.

"It's really satisfying, it's pretty awesome but we still have more work to do," Kidwell said.

Friday was a complete effort out of South Fork's lineup as all but one starter had a hit but from moving runners up with sacrifice bunts to putting the ball in play with two strikes, the Bulldogs were able to keep pressure on Pembroke Pines Charter starting pitcher Destiney Ortega from the jump.

Rolle lauded the mindset his girls took into Friday's game and once he saw the team responded the way they had to in the first inning knew that if they maintained their edge mentally, the job would be completed by the end of the night.

"We were locked in tonight," Rolle said. At practice (after Tuesday), we went back to just straight tee work, did one whole practice where we'd get them to stay behind the barrel, spraying the ball, using a two-strike approach. We did a good job of that tonight, our strikeouts were very low. Our two-strike approach set it up for the next batter and that's what I really liked to see. We really executed."

The top of the order led the way for the Bulldogs as Alice and Abbie Dewaters along with Ortiz and Moore all had two-hit nights and in the circle, Kidwell allowed only four hits after the first inning and struck out four while working around five walks.

South Fork as the third seed in the state semifinals is set to play second seed Deltona on Wednesday, May 24 at Legends Way Ball Fields in Clermont at 7 p.m. while top seed Parrish Community will take on fourth seed River Ridge at 4:30.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Dewaters, Kidwell lead South Fork softball back to Final Four