By Kyle Coppola
South Sumter High Softball Celebrate Senior Night With 9-4 Win
The South Sumter High School Softball team won 9-4 against Nature’s Coast Tech this past week. The lady Raiders have secured the #2 seed in the District Tournament and will be playing against The Villages in the first round of the tournament. South Sumter High sits at 11-9 on the season. They also celebrated senior night before the 9-4 victory.
From Left to Right: Juliana Vela, Cheyann Patterson, Kendall Rumer, Taliyah Mullins, Ariana Garcia.
These young women have done an amazing job this year along with the entire South Sumter softball team. Kendall Rumer has 23 hits, 15 RBI’s and 10 runs scored this season. Ariana Garcia is batting .397 with 23 hits, 14 RBI’s and 21 runs scored. Juliana Vela has been a good secondary option on the pitchers mound this year pitching 50 innings with 56 strikeouts and 22 earned runs. Vela along with freshman pitcher Raven Parker are going to be called upon to do a lot of work in the district tournament.
It’s always sad to see many of these girls play their final home game. Unless South Sumter can win the District Tournament, this was likely their last home game of the year. South Sumter will play The Villages on Tuesday. This is going to be one heck of a game. Both programs have played each other twice this season. South Sumter won at The Villages on February 22nd 4-3 while The Villages won at South Sumter on March 14th by a score of 15-7.
Both programs have grown a lot since then. The question will be if South Sumter can get hits off of Villages pitcher Emily Thompson who is looking as good as she has all season coming down the home stretch. Thompson is now The Villages all-time leading pitcher for strikeouts. South Sumter’s Nathalie Williams is an offensive threat with 7 home runs this season. She’s one to look out for.
Regardless of what happens in this game, this is basically a playoff game. The loser will have a tough time making it into the FHSAA Playoffs. South Sumter is in a better position rankings wise than The Villages. South Sumter is ranked #19 in class 4A while The Villages is ranked #24. Both teams could still get in even with a loss, but would most likely do so as a #7 or 8 seed if they lose the district championship semi-final game.
This is going to be an amazing contest. The game will be at Crystal River High School at 5pm.
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.
