The Wellington Landings Middle School softball team had a perfect season this year. At 13-0, the Lady Gators earned first place in their division and went on to the playoffs, where they captured the county championship.
It was the second time in the school’s softball history that the team had a perfect season and earned the county title. The last time was in 2009. The Lady Gators dominated this year, scoring a total of 136 runs while only allowing 20 runs to score throughout the entire season.
During the playoffs, the Lady Gators defeated Jupiter Middle School 12-6 in the quarterfinals. They then advanced to the semifinals and faced Independence Middle School in a competitive match up. The game went scoreless until the Gators scored 5 runs in the fourth inning. Independence fought back with 3 runs, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Gators’ solid defense.
Wellington Landings hosted the championship match, with the Lady Gators facing the winner of the south division, Christa McAuliffe Middle School, in a tight match up. Once again, WLMS came out strong and scored 3 runs in the first two innings, but Christa McAuliffe battled and went ahead 4-3. In the top of the fifth inning, the Lady Gators tied up the score 4-4. In the final inning, Wellington led off with a walk. The next batter, Skyler Hagan, bunted the runner over to second. With only one out, Christa McAuliffe intentionally walked the next batter, Katie Schmidt, who had previously hit a stand-up triple. In front of a packed crowd, Arianna Vasquez, hit a shot to right center field to win the game 5-4 with a stand-up double.
“The entire team contributed to this year’s success,” Team Manager Jenny Schmidt said. “This is a great group of talented and hardworking athletes, and I can’t wait for next season.”
The team will only graduate two of their nine starters and have an abundance of talent returning and for next season. Coaches include Bob Schmidt and Christa McNeill, along with team manager Whitney Wiley.
