By: J. Daniel Pearson for Positively Osceola
Photos Courtesy Meyday Media, Katie Williams, and Dan Pearson
After a slow start to the 2024 season, new Osceola High baseball coach Nikko Martell has the Kowboys on a roll of late after two impressive wins this past week against notable opponents. Meanwhile, two more county champions will be crowned as 2024 Orange Belt Conference tennis tournament wraps up Tuesday afternoon at Celebration High School.
Here is a look at all the action around Osceola County this week involving our public high schools:
TENNIS
The Celebration boys have clinched their sixth straight OBC championship, after taking a big lead into Tuesday’s championship round. The Storm advanced all five of their singles players into the finals; as well as their #2 doubles team. Celebration entered the tournament with five number one seeds in singles play, and all five (#1 Juan Jiminez, #2 Cayman Pearce, #3 Gabriel Santos, #4 Aiden Dai and #5 Spencer Sterry) have advanced to the OBC championship matches.
With 12 points through the first two rounds and six more potential points in the final, Celebration cannot be caught by second place Tohopekaliga or third place Gateway, who have not advanced enough players to the finals to catch the Storm.
The girls OBC tournament, however, will be determined in Tuesday’s finals. With 14 points, the Lady Storm went undefeated in Saturday’s opening rounds and will advance all five of its singles players and both double teams into Tuesday’s final. Still, the tournament is up for grabs, as Gateway (13 points) advanced four singles and both doubles teams to the finals. The teams will go head-to-head in four singles and both doubles matches with the Storm needing three wins to clinch their third straight OBC team title.
The Championship matches begin at 3:30 p.m. on the Celebration Courts.
BASEBALL
After a slow start, Osceola has won five of their last seven to get above the .500 mark at 6-5. Those victories have included two impressive wins last week against Owasso (Oklahoma) and Donnie Bosco Prep (NJ). Owosso, a long-time Oklahoma power, was beating Osceola 20-1 last year before a thunderstorm deluge canceled the game in third inning. This time around, Owasso had a 10-2 lead heading into the sixth inning, when the Kowboys plated 10 runs for an incredible 12-10 comeback win. Nick Palmi knocked in three runs, including two with a home run, in the victory. The Kowboys followed that win with a 9-5 victory over Bosco – the two-time defending state champion from New Jersey. Palmi was again the star of the game, going two for three with a couple of triples and three more RBI. Palmi, one of the early leaders for county Player of the Year honors, pitched four inning of relief to pick up the win – allowing just one earned run. Through 11 games this season, Palmi is leading the Kowboys in average (.500), RBI (19), runs scored (12) and extra base hits (7). In the featured game this week, Osceola will play at rival St. Cloud on Friday night.
The Bulldogs pushed their season record to 7-4 last week, taking three wins against Gateway (18-7), Hopkins (10-0) and Freedom (4-0). In the Freedom win, St. Cloud pitchers limited Patriots to just two hits. Juniors Drew Kelly (.333 BA) and Josh Bejarano (.407 BA) were leading the Bulldogs in runs batted in with 11 and nine respectively.
After a four-game skid, Harmony (5-7) has won two in a row –including an impressive 11-0 road win over Eau Gallie, who took a 9-3 mark into the game. Angel and Anthony Medina, as well as Nate O’Neil all collected two hits for the Longhorns; while Iziah Santiago knocked in three runs and allowed just two hits in five innings of work as the winning pitcher. The Longhorns face a tough schedule this week, taking on Miami Gulliver Prep (3/26), Highland Park (IL) on 3/27 and state power Lake Brantley (10-2) on Friday.
SOFTBALL
St. Cloud (5-6) found the sledding tough in the Clearwater Invitational, where they lost games to East Bay, Hagerty and Sarasota Riverview. Hagerty (12-2) is the 12th ranked team in the state. Things will not get any easier this week, as St. Cloud has games scheduled at Winter Park (7-3) and at defending 4A State Champion Lake Wales.
Miranda Watford’s young Osceola (3-5) team will have a chance to push its record above .500 this week as it plays Celebration, Jones and Lyman ahead of next week’s Roger Jones Kissimmee Klassic (Apr. 4-5). Alexis Miranda had three hits and three RBI in the Lady Kowboys big 11-1 win over Tohopekaliga last week.
Harmony (4-4) split a pair of games last week, beating Liberty (20-0) but losing a 7-4 decision to Eau Gallie. Isabella Correa homered in the Liberty game, Emerson Aslan had two RBI against Eau Gallie. Poinciana (5-4) split with Celebration (W) and Tohopekaliga (L). Mia Guieb was hitting .522 for the Eagles. Tohopekaliga (6-3) will play road games at Freedom and Lake Buena Vista this week. Angel Castro was leading the Tigers in batting (.437), runs (12) and RBI (10).
After a red-hot 6-1 start, Tohopekliga has dropped five straight to fall to 6-5 – including a 9-0 loss to Donnie Bosco in the same Davenport Invitational that included Osceola. The Tigers will attempt to right the ship this week with games against Liberty, Poinciana and Master’s Academy.
TRACK
Tohopekaliga, Osceola and Harmony sent athletes to the 25-team Dr. Phillips Invitational on Saturday. State power Vero Beach won both the boys (129 points) and girls (83) championships; while the Osceola girls (59) were third and the Tohopekaliga boys (54) also grabbed a third place finish. On the boy’s side, the Tigers had an excellent team effort, scoring points in nine different events. Highlights for Tohopekaliga included Gabriel Centeno (9’-0”) and Devon Priestley (8’-6”) taking fourth and fifth in the pole vault; Galen Marquez and Chris Gunner (5’-7 ¾” each) finishing fourth and fifth in the high jump; and Jairo Beltran (108’-5”) and Isaac Galan (107’-4”) going fourth and fifth in the discus. Jordan Mundle had a big day for the Kowboys, placing in 400-meter dash (7th-52.81), triple jump (4th-44’-4” and long jump (4th– 21’-7 ¾”).
Osceola’s third place finish on the girls’ side came from great efforts up and down the roster. The 4 x 100 (4th) and 4 x 400 (2nd) relay teams both posted top five finishes. Zanaya Bright scored in both the 100-meter (3rd– 12.71) and long jump (5th-15-11); and Mya Gonzalez also scored in multiple individual events taking 3rd in the 800 (2:32.15) and 6th in the 1600 (5:52.0). Sophia Delgado had a big day for Tohopekaliga, recording top 10s in the javelin (3rd-75’-9”), discus (7th-81-06) and the shot put (2nd-34’-4 ½”).
St. Cloud qualified nine athletes for the prestigious FSU Relays in Tallahassee, where representatives from more than 200 high schools sent competitors. Top performances for the Bulldogs included high jumper Jahleek Lawrence, who finished 13th with a leap of 1.83 meters and Priscilla Rodriguez, who took 15th in the 100-meter hurdles (16.36).
LACROSSE
St. Cloud (8-1) girls lost their first match of the season, dropping a 7-6 road decision to Okeechobee; but got back two days later with a 17-5 win over Lake Gibson. Morgan van Auken scored four goals in the Lake Gibson game to win Player of the Game honors and also took over the team lead in goals with 24 on the season. The Lady Bulldogs have games this week against Colonial (Tuesday) and county rival Tohopekaliga (Thursday). The Tigers were 3-6 on the year after dropping games to Sebastian River (17-7) and Celebration (14-6). The win by the Storm (3-6) was just their first in four games. They have tough road games this week against Bishop Moore (7-4) and Winter Park (8-5).
The Celebration boys (0-8) will have three chances to win their first game this week as they play contests against Newark Academy (NJ), Dr. Phillips and Lake Wales. Tohopekaliga has a Friday game with St. Cloud, as well as two other contests this week. Tohopekaliga (4-4) came back from a 5-1 deficit at the half to defeat Celebration, 6-5, as Nathan Ilemsky scored three goals. Jackson McCoy scored three times and had four assists as St. Cloud beat Lake Buena Vista, 8-4.
