'It's been a fun ride:' Young GHS softball squad looks to carry confidence and momentum into final four

On Tuesday, the GHS softball team sported “white lies” shirts to their final practice before their state semifinal game Thursday.

Head coach Chris Chronister wore a shirt saying, “I can hear.”

“I guess I do have some hearing deficits,” Chronister said. “A lot of times they are talking to me, and I am just ignoring them. They have to say my name several times.”

While Chronister might not hear his name, he can hear a confidence ruminating from his young squad, one strong enough to send the program to its first final four in eight years.

The Hurricanes will take the field in Clermont as a three seed in Class 5A Thursday vs Archbishop McCarthy.

Here’s what you need to know:

A year ahead of schedule

The ‘Canes staggered to a 6-14 2023 season, one of their worst in recent history.

They lost in the first round of regionals, and Chronister immediately went to work revamping the roster.

Three players, two through four in the lineup, sparked the change.

At second, McKenna O’Sullivan transferred in from Columbia and continued her hitting excellence from Lake City. Her 33 RBIs this season rank in the top 20 in 5A.

Third is Leanna Bourdage. Her exploits have been well chronicled here in the Sun. Just as a reminder, though, the freshman phenomenon leads 5A in strikeouts, wins and ERA. At the plate, her home runs and runs scored are top 15 in the class.

Cleanup is Braylin Cook. The junior spent her first two seasons as just another member of the GHS lineup. This season, though, she became one of the best hitters in the state. Her home run, RBI and slugging totals rank in top six of 5A.

Chronister knew preseason that if some issues got ironed, this team could be special.

“The regular season is less about winning every single game and more about developing the team chemistry and figuring out who's best at what position and where they may perform the best in the lineup,” Chronister said.

As such, GHS took its bumps and entered the postseason as a No. 4 seed in Region 1 of 5A.

Hurricane intensifying at the right time

Playoff time saw the ‘Canes reach category five status.

In districts, they swirled past top 10 ranked Middleburg to win for the first time in two years behind an 18 K no hitter from Bourdage.

That mojo carried over into regionals. The squad run ruled Deltona and then shut out Middleburg again followed by Gulf Breeze, despite the Dolphins top 45 state ranking and the five hour trip to Pensacola that proceeded the game.

On paper, Archbishop McCarthy’s “strength of schedule” is higher than GHS’, but that last FHSAA ranking came out before regionals, and the ‘Canes SOS has skyrocketed since then.

As has their confidence.

“We feel like we can compete with any team in the state when we play our game,” Chronister said. “We can't go out there and kick it around and make a bunch of errors and have bad at bats, but that's not our game.”

Bourdage’s excellence – one run allowed in regionals – also showed the team that as long as a few runs are produced, a win can happen.

“If we can get a couple runs early in the game for us offensively, that's a huge boost, and it really builds the confidence in the team,” Chronister said.

Just like any other game

For all their success this season, the Hurricanes are still a young team. They feature just two seniors and seven of the 15 are underclassmen.

As such, Chronister and the other coaches have tried to let the team have fun and not amp up the pressure. In fact, the white lie idea was born from that philosophy.

“It's a fun game. We want to come out here and have fun,” Chronister said. “Play hard, but at the end of the day, we're just having some fun out here.”

That mission proved somewhat difficult though Wednesday as the GHS student body sent the girls off to Clermont with a standing ovation through campus.

That was exciting. It's been a fun ride. Hopefully we're not done yet. We got a couple more games ago, just got to focus on this next one,” Chronister said.

First pitch vs the Mavericks will be at noon Thursday and can be streamed on the NFHS Network.

Noah Ram covers Gainesville-area high school sports and University of Florida athletics for The Gainesville Sun. Contact him at Nram@gannett.com and follow him @Noah_ram1 on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville High softball plays Thursday in FHSAA Class 5A semifinals