Wewa champs again

PLANT CITY - Now it's the private schools from the big cities that can't beat the public school from the small town.

The Wewahitchka Lady Gators played through some early baserunning mistakes and struggles at the plate Thursday, and with a little help from Jacksonville Providence won their second consecutive Class 2A state softball title 4-1 at Plant City Stadium.

Wewa has won four straight games against private schools in the state tournament dating to last year's semifinals.

Wewa coach Coy Adkins, who won the title in his first season after taking over for Charles Fortner, had one word to describe his emotions: relieved.

"I feel like we should repeat because of the athletes we had aback," Adkins said. "Number one, it's hard to win back-to-back. I guess it's just a monkey off our back again and beating the private schools again."

Temperatures in Plant City surpassed 90 degrees, causing Wewa (27-2) to adjust its warmup routine. Adkins felt it helped the Lady Gators stay fresher longer than Providence (26-4), which wore all-black uniforms.

While the Lady Gators' trademark power hitting wasn't on display this week, their knack for clutch hitting was.

"We practice all aspects of the game and I didn't know we were going to hit 43 home runs when the year started," Adkins said. "It just happened from a lot of work. This got back to a typical fastpitch softball game."

As usual, junior pitcher Samantha Rich shut down the opposition with 13 strikeouts against the Lady Stallions. Her performance in the circle was much like the Lady Gators at bat: sparkling at times, but more workmanlike. Rich threw an uncharacteristic three wild pitches.

Wewa's troubles on the basepaths started early. Leadoff batter Hilary Chapman was called out at second for leaving early in the first inning. In the second, Chelsey Pettis was doubled off first on a hit and run.

The Lady Gators didn't seriously threaten through the first four innings. With one out in the fifth, Samantha Wade singled and advanced as Tori Bowles reached on one of Providence's four errors. Amanda Robbins, who was 2 for 3, singled in Wade to give Wewa a 1-0 lead.

Another Providence error enabled Rebecca Barnes to reach. Chapman followed with a chopper over Providence first baseman Natalie Britt that rolled down the right-field line to score Bowles and Robbins and put Wewa ahead 3-0.

Providence's only run came in the top of the sixth when Providence pitcher Jessica Childers scored on Katie Sambito's single.

Wewa added the final run when Bowles knocked in Ashley Gates in the bottom of the sixth.

Adkins retreated from previous comments about this year's Wewa team being the best ever in North Florida if it won the title.

"I don't think that's a fair comparison," he said. "That's taking something away from last year's team because that's the team that broke the ice.

"That's the team that gave us the confidence. We were able to walk with a little bit of a swagger this year. We were the best 2A team in the state of Florida the last two years."