Harmony Captures OBC Championships in Baseball and Softball, St. Cloud Secures Victory in Boys Volleyball

By: J. Daniel Pearson for Positively Osceola

Harmony High celebrated sweeping victories Friday night as both their girls’ softball and boys’ baseball teams clinched OBC Championships, triumphantly raising banners following decisive wins over their cross-town rivals, St. Cloud. At Gateway High School, number one seed St. Cloud battled number six seed Tohopekaliga and took home the boys OBC volleyball title.

In boys baseball at St. Cloud’s home field, Longhorn pitcher Alexavier Lebron threw for a five-inning no hitter and Harmony took advantage of 10 walks and some shaky defense by its opponents to defeat St. Cloud, 11-1, and capture the 2024 Orange Belt Conference Championship.

The win capped a solid tournament week for the Longhorns, 12-8, who reached the championship game with a 10-0 win over Liberty in the quarterfinals and an 8-2 victory against Tohopekaliga in the semifinals. Including the 10-run rule win over the Bulldogs, Harmony outscored its opposition 39-3 in the tournament in winning their second consecutive OBC crown.

“If anything, this game just reinforces what we preach to our kids all the time, in that there’s more than one way to win a ball game,” Harmony coach Heath Williams said about his team that collected just three singles on the night. “Sometimes you’re not always going to get a lot of hits and you’re not always going to win games by playing great defense. Tonight we won because we got a great pitching effort and were patient at the plate.”

Lebron was simply outstanding on the mound. In his complete game, he did not allow a hit, walked three and struck out eight. St. Cloud scored its only run in fourth on back-to-back errors by the Harmony infield. The only other Bulldog threat came in the first inning, when Sean Gallagher and Sammy Echeverry drew one-out walks, but Lebron came back to strikeout Josh Bejarno and Sebastian Echeverry to end the threat.

“He (Lebron) was just a little wild in the first inning, but he really settled down when he got out of that jam,” Williams noted. “We’ve had a lot of starters miss time this year with injuries but it seems like every game someone makes up for it by stepping up and taking the pressure off. That person was Alexavier tonight.”

While the Longhorns were getting outstanding pitching, their bats were relatively quiet.

The only run they scored via hit came in the fourth inning on Yathniel Matos’ RBI single. But the Longhorns managed to score 10 other runs by taking advantage of nine walks, three hit batters, two errors, two wild pitches, a balk and a passed ball. Nate O’Neill, Matos, Clayton Williams, and David Arroyo all scored two runs each for the Longhorns.

“The main thing I told our guys is this game does not define them or the season in any way,” St. Cloud coach David Blackmore said. “We actually had a good run to the finals and this was simply one of those games where we didn’t pitch very well and we had some defensive lapses. We have two weeks left in the regular season to regroup and get ready for districts.”

The Bulldogs rough pitching performance was in sharp contrast to the games they played leading up to the final. Sophomore Brian Wright threw a complete game no-hitter in 8-0 win over Gateway in the quarterfinals; while three St. Cloud pitchers combined on a three-hit shutout in a 2-0 win over Osceola in the semifinals.

2024 Orange Belt Conference

Baseball Tournament

Quarterfinals