CLERMONT — There were no Cardiac Kids, no seventh-inning magic and no improbable comebacks for Bartow. In a rematch between Florida-bound Red Oxley of Bartow and LSU-bound Jayden Heavener of Pace, round two belongs to Heavener.
After losing to Oxley and Bartow last season, Heavener took things into her own hands as her two-run homer and two-hit pitching subdued the Yellow Jackets, 2-0, on Friday night in the championship game of the 2024 FHSAA Softball State Championships at Legends Way Ballfields.
Bartow (30-2), which had defeated Pace last season, 5-1, in the final, was looking for its 10th state title.
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“I feel like as a team, we wanted it, and we always have a good spirit,” Oxley said. “We always really do. That’s one thing about Bartow that I will always love and cherish. But sometimes things don’t go your way.”
It was redemption for Heavener who finally broke through after losing in the state semifinals to Melbourne’s Jasmine Francik, who has signed with Florida and had just defeated Bartow in the regional finals that year. It gives each highly touted pitcher one state championship apiece.
Oxley was looking to be the just the third Polk County pitcher to win back-to-back state titles. Lindsay Littlejohn, whose father Mike Littlejohn is Oxley's former pitching coach and returned to Florida to watch her in the state tournament, won four in row from 2002 through 2005, and Lakeland Christian’s Kristen Beacham won back to back titles in 2015 and 2016.
For Oxley and Heavener, it was a classic pitching duel. Oxley allowed five hits and struck out 15 with three walks. Heavener was nearly perfect as she hurled a two-hitter and struck out 16. Her
“There's nothing really to say, I shouldn’t have given up a two run homer,” Oxley said. “I shouldn't have done that, but it's still 0-0, right? Someone still has to score. So in the end, it was one missed pitch all the way in the others batter's box. So kudos to Jayden.”
Pace did its damage in the top of the third inning. Shelby McKenzie drew a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch. Then with the wind blowing out to right, Heavener homered to right on another 3-2 pitch.
“She had been fouling off his pitches,” Oxley said. “So I mean, I threw out of the batters box, and she just stayed with it and that's kudos to her. Shelby McKenzie is really good. She on my travel ball team. She's doing really good. I just feel like it came down to offense. And that's the thing. If it's not on, it's not on. I'm not going to say anything more about my players or myself because I love this team so much that I'll just take the blame. I shouldn’t have given up a two run home run.”
Bartow’s only two hits came from senior first baseman Julia Heter, who reached third twice to give the Yellow two scoring chances that they couldn’t convert. Heter tripled with one out in the second inning, but Heavener struck out the next two batters.
Heter doubled to lead off the fifth and advanced to third on a passed ball with one out. Parker then hit a high hopper to second, and Heter was thrown out at home. Parker was then doubled off first base after she left the base thinking she had already been thrown out.
“We just didn't adjust enough,” Bartow coach Glenn Rutenbar said. “We had I think four quality at-bats. Two by Julia, Shay's Chopper and Kyndal (Cornelius) and that's it. We didn't adjust enough. We talked about it before the game during the game. She was tough. She deserved it. We got beat, that’s the bottom line, but I'm proud of my team. We didn't lose to anything cheap. She dominated a lot of our hitters.”
Cornelius nearly invoked that seventh inning match that saw Bartow score 10 runs in the seventh inning in its last three state tournament games, but her deep fly ball two right was caught at the fence. The steady wind that had been blowing all game had died at that point.
Both of Heter’s hits went off the fence in center.
“When Kyndal hit that one, I thought (it has a chance),” Rutenbar said. And Julia, we have have had Julia in the whole lineup we would have been in pretty good shape. We just didn’t adjust enough, and it’s not easy.”
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