- April 24, 2024
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If the Sarasota High softball team had nerves about being in the thick of the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 7A regional playoffs, they didn't show it during a May 9 intra-squad scrimmage.
The opposite was on display. The Sailors were loose, players and coaches alike rapping along to 1990s and 2000s hits like Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby." They laughed when teammates were tagged out on the bases via clever plays and joked about wanting their pictures taken a lot (or not at all). An onlooker would be forgiven for thinking it was an offseason practice.
It was not; that's just how the Sailors are, Coach Heather Mushrush said.
In fact, the Sailors still believe they have much to accomplish. After beating two-time defending state champion Lakewood Ranch High 5-3 in the district championship May 4, Sarasota (20-4) will now host West Orange High (17-8-1) at 7 p.m. on May 11 in the regional semifinals. It is the program's third-straight season reaching this point in the postseason; the Sailors lost the previous two years, including a 6-3 loss to Mitchell High in 2022.
Because of the team's positive attitude — as well as its skill — the Sailors believe this is the year they can break into the regional semifinals and beyond.
"We're goofy, but it's a good goofy," junior centerfielder Abbey Johns said. "And we all know what we are. We're not a home-run hitting team. We're scrappy. We just keep pushing."
The Sailors are outscoring opponents 171-66 this season, a per-game average of 7.13 to 2.75. Not much of that scoring, as Johns said, comes from the long ball. Sarasota has hit just eight home runs in 2023, according to MaxPreps data, and five of those eight have come off the bat of junior Brooke Bendel.
Instead, the Sailors have scored by pelting opponents with contact and forcing the other team to make plays. Of the Sailors' players with 21 or more games played, five of them have batting averages of .300 or better, and the team's leadoff and two-hole hitters, sophomore Sommer Speers and freshman Gianna Williams, are hitting .427 and .417 respectively.
"My job is just to get on base," Speers said. "We (Speers and Williams) have Abbey (Johns) and Brooke (Bendel) right behind us. We want to produce opportunities for us to score, however that happens."
The offense works as a unit. For the Sailors to have as much success as they think they can, they need everyone to be doing their job within the lineup. It's another way the team's attitude has helped; everyone is willing to do whatever is necessary.
"They are acknowledging each other," Mushrush said. "We're peaking when we want to peak."
The offense may spread the love, but on the mound, the Sailors have a distinct headliner — senior Ryleigh Bennett, who has sustained her scorching start to 2023 all season. As of May 9, Bennett holds a 1.23 ERA over 136.2 innings. On the rare occasion that the Sailors' offense has sputtered, or started slow, Bennett has kept the team in games. Against Lakewood Ranch in the district championship, the Sailors fell behind 2-0 in the second inning on a home run by University of Florida signee Cassidy McLellan, but Bennett shook it off and held the Mustangs off the board again until the seventh inning; by that time, the Sailors had put five runs on the board over the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Bennett's teammates said playing behind the senior is a dream. Speers went as far as to say Bennett's performance has "100%" been the single biggest key to the team's success.
"I can't even … I mean, she's just thrown so well this year," Speers said. "She and our defense make it hard for teams to get momentum. We just want to make it as easy for her to go back to the mound as possible."
West Orange will put the Sailors' defense to the test. Senior second baseman Addisyn Schwied said the team has been preparing for the Vikings' "slappers," a term used to describe a style of hitting in softball that focuses on putting the ball in play and having it bounce on purpose, creating a higher percentage of errors and grounders that go for singles. Schwied said the team wants to limit how much West Orange can get on base by slapping the ball.
The Vikings use a stable of pitchers, but their most effective has been freshman Rylee Lenzi, who holds a 1.85 ERA and an 8-6 record. It won't necessarily be easy to solve Lenzi, but that isn't a worry for the Sailors, who have been getting results all year, regardless of the challenge in front of them.
"We always get going eventually," sophomore shortstop Carley Ramsden said. "It happened last year, too. I think it just comes naturally to this group. We have become close. We know how to talk to each other to get ready. We just have a good vibe. I think that's a big part of our success. We have the right attitude.
"We know we have worked hard enough. We know how to play. We just have to go do it."
