By Kyle Coppola
Eustis Softball Wins Class 4A District 7 Championship Game
Eustis Softball won the Class 4A District 7 Championship game last night with a dominating performance over Vanguard. Eustis now sits at 21-2 overall while Vanguard dips to 18-6. Both teams will make the FHSAA Tournament with Eustis most certainly wrapping up a #1 seed in the bracket.
Eustis had an 8-run bottom of the first inning to put the game nearly out of reach. A further run added in the 2nd inning brought the score to 9-0. Skylar Cloud was terrific. She pitched 6 innings and had 7 strikeouts against a very good Vanguard team who proved their worth offensively this season.
(Jensen Luke has been terrific this year. She would have 3 hits, 2 runs scored and an RBI during the District Championship game. JOE OTT PHOTOGRAPY)
Vanguard scored 5 runs in the top of the 4th to make it a 9-5 ballgame. They would add a further run in the top of the 5th, making it an interesting ballgame at 9-6 headed into the bottom of the 5th. But Eustis was too strong and would add another 5 runs in the bottom of the 5th to ice the game. The final score was 16-6.
This was a fitting conclusion to the regular season and district play for Eustis. They have been amazing all year long. They will most likely end up as the top seed in the FHSAA Softball Class 4A Tournament. While there are still games left to play, Eustis seems like a heavy favorite to make it to the State Semi-Finals this season and contend for a State Championship.
(Skylar Colas has been one of the best pitchers in the state of Florida in 2024. She would have 7 strikeouts against a very stout Vanguard offense. JOE OTT PHOTOGRAPY)
Contributing last evening was Ciera Maple, who had 3 RBIs along with Lillie Smith, who also had 3 RBIs. Jensen Luke and Lillie Smith led the team in hits. Brooke Powhida, Ciara Maple, Dalilah Taylor, Jensen Luke, and Taylor Goff all scored two runs for Eustis, with nearly every girl on the starting roster scoring a run other than Skylar Cloud, who went on to pitch a masterful game.
Eustis will get the weekend to rest up and get ready to host a Regional Quarterfinal game early next week.
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.
