By: J. Daniel Pearson for Positively Osceola
The Harmony girls’ flag football team and the Tohopekaliga boys’ baseball team both made statements last week with big wins. With spring break arriving this week, many teams have elected to go dark but here is a look around high school sports in Osceola County this week.
BOYS’ VOLLYBALL
The sport is off this week for spring break, but Ettie Singleton’s St. Cloud Bulldogs is off to a fast start (2-0) with wins over Forest Lake and a 5-set win over perennial county power Celebration (1-1). Senior Will Stuphen had 16 kills in the season opener. Led by senior Cyus Cory (23 kills) and freshmen Brayden Buehler (24 kills) last week, Harmony split a pair of matches and found themselves sitting at 2-3 on the season. Gateway (1-1) split their opening matches, losing to Harmony but beating Liberty. Hugo Arayata had 30 assists through two matches. Poinciana had wins over Ridge and Harmony and a 3-2 setback to Celebration in their opening week of play. Tohopekaliga (0-3) will search for its first win after the break.
FLAG FOOTBALL
All eight public schools are idle this week, but the big news was Harmony winning a pair of close games last week to capture their fourth consecutive Orange Belt Conference championship. The Horns dropped St. Cloud in the final by a score of 19-12 (read about it here: https://www.positivelyosceola.com/harmony-longhorns-clinch-obc-flag-football-title-edwards-shines-with-stellar-three-touchdown-performance/ ). In addition to the Longhorns (6-1), several other county teams are off to solid starts this season including St. Cloud (5-2), Celebration (5-1) and Gateway (5-2). The Storm lost a tough 7-6 game to Harmony in the OBC semifinals but rallied with a 37-0 win over Osceola in the third place game on Friday.
BASEBALL
Looking to take another positive step in building his program, first-year head coach Armando Perez guided Tohopekaliga to an impressive 3-1 win over perennial playoff team Lake Nona on the road last Friday night. Tyler Sheffield and Ellena Urena combined on a six-hitter as the Tigers went to 6-1 on the season. (Read about that win here: https://www.positivelyosceola.com/at-6-1-tohopekaliga-high-continues-to-build-a-winning-baseball-programat-6-1-tohopekaliga-high-continues-to-build-a-winning-baseball-program/ ). The Tigers will play at Wekiva on Wednesday and home to Choate Rosemary Hall (Connecticut) on Saturday. Samuel Isturez (.474 batting average) and Anthony Segarra (.435) were the leading hitters for Tohopekaliga through seven games; while reliever Urena was 1-0 with two saves, a 0.60 era and 21 strikeouts in just 11.1 innings
Osceola (3-3) evened its record for the season with wins over rivals St. Cloud by a 4-1 count on Tuesday and a 7-6 win over Harmony on Thursday in eight innings. The Kowboys had a 6-2 lead heading into the final frame but gave up four runs as the Longhorns came storming back. In extra innings, Felix Rodriguuez drove in the winning run. Senior Nick Palmi is off to a hot start, hitting .550 for the Kowboys (11 for 20) with a team-leading 11 RBI and five extra-base hits. Palmi was four for five last week with four doubles and five RBI. Osceola has two tough games this week, hosting Mulberry (5-2) on Monday and traveling to Winter Haven (5-1) on Wednesday.
St. Cloud also sat at 3-3 after dropping a tight 4-3 game to Cypress Creek on Friday night. Freshman Sammy Echeverry was leading the Bulldogs with a .571 batting average and a .727 on-base percentage. Harmony (3-5) will take a Southwest Florida swing during spring break playing at Neumann (Naples) on Thursday and against Bishop Verlot (Ft. Myers) on Friday. Junior Clayton Williams had three RBI in the Osceola loss.
Celebration (0-3) has a spring break game scheduled with Haileyville (Oklahoma) this week; while Poinciana (1-2) and Liberty (0-7) and Gateway (3-4) are off for spring break. Sophomore Ken Bermudez is currently hitting .500 for the Panthers (10 for 20) through seven games. Starting the season with nine players being either declared ineligible or having left the team, the Chargers have been basically playing a varsity schedule with 14 freshmen and sophomores on the roster. Matt Sosa, one of the few seniors, pitched a tremendous game in a 1-0 loss to Poinciana last week – striking out a career high 16 and allowing just one hit and an unearned run in taking the loss.
Softball
A 2-1 week pushed Harmony to 3-3 on the season. During an 18-5 offensive explosion over Lakeland, Ava Boisclair knocked in four runs. Earlier in the week, sophomore Emerson Aslan, who is doubling by playing flag football this spring, slammed her team-leading third home run in a 3-1 win over Palm Harbor.
St. Cloud defeated Space Coast, 7-5, before taking a tight 2-1 win over arch-rival Osceola to push its season record to 5-2. Addison Felblinger struck out 13 and had an RBI for the Lady Bulldogs; Alexis Miranda allowed just one hit in the loss, surrendering two unearned runs. Playing a tough schedule, the Kowboys are starting six freshmen in their lineup. One of those first-year players — Faith Ferrer — was hitting .588 for the Lady Kowboys , who are 2-5 on the season.
Tohopekaliga took a 5-2 record into spring breaking. Junior Jassalynn Marino was hitting .462 for the Tigers. Freshman Maria Santiago had four RBIs in a win over Liberty. Gateway was 0-3 on the season and Celebration was 1-4. Freshman Gianelez Reyes (9 for 16) was batting at a .727 clip for the Storm. Poinciana was averaging more than eight runs again but also giving up more than seven a game in their 4-3 start. Senior Coryman Gotay was batting .429 with a team-leading 12 RBI. After a solid 3-2 start, Liberty had a rough week, being out-scored 26-1 in losses to Tohopekaliga (11-1) and Ocoee (15-0).
TRACK
The boys and girls track teams from Tohopekaliga, Celebration, Harmony, St. Cloud and host Osceola were among the 28 teams that participated in the huge Kowboys Invitational Track Meet last Saturday. On the boys’ side, Ocoee (110) won the team championship, Harmony (64) was third and Osceola (59) was fourth. Satellite (102) won the girls title; while Osceola (65) was third and Harmony (63) fourth.
Outstanding performers from Osceola County schools in the girls’ meet included Osceola’s Korbyn Jones (2nd Triple Jump – 10.65 meters), 4 x800 relay team (2nd), Norlena Ford (3rd – 400 meter dash) and Zanaya Bright (2nd in the 100-meter dash – 12.36). Harmony’s Nicole Olivera took a pair of second place finishes in the long jump (5.65 meters) and the 200-meter dash (26.43). Tohopekaliga’s Sanaa Charles was second in the high jump (1.53 meters); while St. Cloud’s 4 x 800 relay team (Jade Shroyer, Jalissa Yarborough, Allison Sandoval and Kyla Perez) won a championship; while Priscilla Rodriuez was second in the 100-meter hurdles (14.82).
Harmony’s Alden Peterson and Osceola’s Jordan Mundle had great meets on the boys’ side. Peterson won the 400-meters (51.48) and came in fourth in the 200 (22.77); while Mundle scored in three events, taking second in the 400 (41.88) and placing second in the long jump and fourth in the triple jump. Behind the effort of Taevion Swint, Jakari Watson, Jeff Banks and Tony Doss, Osceola won the 4 x100 meter relay (42.70); with Swint also finishing fourth in the 100-meter dash (11.10). Harmony’s Aden Elenist, Connor Flaherty, Nate Greenwalt, and Ivan Ramos won the 4 x 400 relay title; while teammate Noah Tribe was the champion in the long jump (6.80 meters). St. Cloud’s Laurence Jahleek (1.98 meters) and Jonathan Rodriguez (1.64 meters) went 1-2 in the long jump.
