By Kyle Coppola
Eustis Girls Softball Play Lake Wales in Regional Semifinal
The Eustis High School Lady Panthers take on Lake Wales in an FHSAA Class 4A Regional Final at the Eustis Softball Athletic Complex tonight at 7pm. Eustis comes into the game 22-2 on the season after getting a scare from Merritt Island in the first round, but the Panthers came out on top 9-6.
Lake Wales is coming in with plenty of momentum after upsetting Vanguard last week. Lake Wales came in as the #5 seed and Vanguard the #4 seed, but Lake Wales won 6-2 setting the stage for tonight’s contest.
(Eustis will look to get Ciara Maple on base early. She’s had a big year. The FAMU commit has been such a joy to watch play for the Lady Panthers.)
You can be sure that head coach Brittany Beall has her girls ready to go. Pitching tonight will be Skylar Cloud. She’s experienced an amazing season on the mound. Cloud has pitched 103 innings and has thrown 122 strikeouts. She’s only given up 26 earned runs this year and has a 1.76 ERA.
For any team to come in and get hits off of Cloud, it’s an accomplishment and Lake Wales will have their work cut out this evening. Eustis should be in good shape offensively as Lillie Smith, Ciara Maple, Jensen Luke, Gabby Hiles, Katie Short, Kendall Kemp and Taylor Goff have had big years at the plate.
(Katie Short fields the ball during a recent game against The Villages.)
Lake Wales will no doubt have their Ace Anna Conroy on the mound. Conroy has pitched 138 innings and thrown 123 strikes. She has a 1.92 ERA and has only given up 38 earned runs. If this comes down to a pitchers’ duel, Eustis has the bats to contend but so does Lake Wales. It will be important for each team to strike early if possible.
This is shaping up to be an incredible contest this evening. Eustis is letting the first 50 students in for FREE tonight with a student ID, so be sure to show up!! Tickets ar $9 and the game starts at 7pm. We do recommend getting to the game early tonight as it’s expected to be a big crowd on hand this evening! Go Lady Panthers!”
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
