Double denied: No-hitter, walk-off hit stop University Christian's softball repeat bid
University Christian's quest for a softball repeat ran into the unhittable pitcher.
Zoe Yzaguirre pitched her third consecutive no-hitter and Payton Billie delivered the walk-off hit, and Fort Myers Evangelical Christian denied University Christian's repeat bid 1-0 in Wednesday's Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A softball championship in Clermont.
Billie cracked a one-out double in the bottom of the seventh — the first safe hit outside the infield all game for either team — to score Keaunna Green, ending UC's bid to join Bartram Trail and Eagle's View as Northeast Florida's only back-to-back state softball champions.
University Christian had beaten the Sentinels 3-2 in last year's final, also held at Legends Way Ballfields.
The hit closed a pitchers' duel to remember matching UC senior Sophia Kardatzke and Sentinels ace Yzaguirre, who allowed only one walk and kept up her astounding playoff no-no streak.
Kardatzke, in the final game of her seven-year pitching career with UC before heading to college softball at USC-Upstate, threw a three-hitter that somehow wasn't enough.
Yzaguirre entered the game with 14 consecutive hitless innings — two against Fort Meade, five against Moore Haven, seven against Academy at the Lakes in Tuesday's state semifinal — and ended up stretching that run to 21 innings.
She retired UC (19-8) in order in every inning except two. Kardatzke reached on an error in the first inning and got on base with a walk in the fourth, but ended up stranded both times.
But with Kardatzke allowing only an infield hit through six frames, the battle continued until the seventh. Green beat out a one-out bunt in front of the plate, and Billie followed with a line drive just inside the third base line to end the ballgame for the Sentinels (28-2).
UC, which has qualified for every FHSAA final four since 2019 (other than the canceled 2020 season) is set to graduate Kardatzke as well as senior cornerstones Jaleigha Harris and Kate Dell'Alba.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: University Christian-Evangelical Christian: High school softball 2024
