Regional softball: Arnold, Mosley eliminated

TALLAHASSEE — Arnold was held scoreless for a second consecutive game, but this time the result ended the Marlins’ softball season.

Arnold mustered just two hits against Florida High pitcher Taylor Rossman, who struck out 12 in the Seminoles 7-0 victory over Arnold in a Region 1-3A quarterfinal showdown.

Florida will host Marianna — a 4-2 winner over Madison County — in the Region 1-3A semifinals on Friday at 6 p.m. CDT. Arnold, which lost 1-0 against Marianna in the District 1-3A title game last Thursday, finished the season 21-8 overall.

 “She’s just got a great breaking ball and a great rise ball,” Marlins coach Rick Green said of Rossman. “And she pitches all her pitches on the edge of the plate. Our kids did a good job the second time around (through the lineup) putting them in play, but by that time the game was over.”

Florida scored an unearned run in the third inning to take the lead, but the Seminoles posted five earned runs in the fourth to take control. Florida scored another unearned run in the sixth to seal the outcome.

“The other team played better than us tonight,” Green said. “We talked about that earlier that we had to hit the ball and jump ahead early to get a chance to win. We didn’t do that tonight.”

Arnold’s Michelle Ostrovsky singled, and Jo Jo Booker added a bunt single.

The Marlins matched their deepest run in postseason play in program history.

“You can’t take away from the success we’ve had this year,” Green said. “We would have liked to play better here in the region, but it just didn’t happen.”

Navarre 7, Mosley 1

NAVARRE — Navarre scored four runs in the first inning to take control early and added three more in the third to build an insurmountable lead in the Region 1-5A quarterfinal game.

Mosley coach Brian Wilke said his team thought it had escaped the third inning unharmed when the Dolphins recorded the third out of the inning. Navarre successfully appealed the play, however, arguing that an illegal pitch had been made. Given another opportunity, the Raiders pushed three runs across the plate to build a six-run lead.

“They had a good team, though; I don’t want to take anything away from them,” Wilke said of the Raiders. “But it’s a lot different when it’s 4-1 than when it’s 7-1.”

Ashley Welch was the lone Mosley player with two hits, and she scored the Dolphins’ only run in the top of the first.

“Our No. 1 goal is to get to the playoffs and have a chance,” Wilke said. “We did that, and that made it four years in a row. Now we need to grow up. We had a young team. We had two seniors that started, and we had a lot of freshmen and sophomores who need to take it to the next level. They’ve got some playoff experience now, and we need to try to get down the road again.”

Mosley finished the season 12-14 overall.