SPRINGFIELD — Pressure manifests itself in a variety of ways.
There is the pressure that occurs naturally, like that found in Mosley’s eight-inning nailbiter against Arnold on Wednesday night. Then there is the kind that is manufactured, which Mosley used to great effect against Gulf Breeze in the District 1-5A softball tournament title game on Thursday.
Mosley put Gulf Breeze on its heels with aggressive baserunning, timely hitting and Katie Lopes’ pitching en route to an 11-1, six-inning victory at the Vera Shamplain Sports Complex.
Mosley (15-6) will host a regional quarterfinal game against either Suwannee or Wakulla next Thursday. Suwannee and Wakulla were rained out Thursday and will play Saturday in the District 2-5A championship.
Lopes, who struck out 17 against Arnold one night earlier, finished with 13 strikeouts. The one run she allowed was unearned, and she scattered six hits and issued two walks. Lopes’ dominance from the pitcher’s circle gave Mosley time to jump start the offense, and the Dolphins scored their 11 runs in the game’s final three innings.
Mallory Harrigill put down a perfectly placed suicide squeeze bunt in the fourth inning to drive in Laney Haynes from third base for the game’s first run. Haynes had led off the inning with a groundball past the second baseman that eventually rolled all the way to the outfield fence for a double.
Mosley took control in the fifth with a five-run outburst to take a 6-0 lead. Jill Johnson, Haynes, Mackenzie Johnson and Meagan Gray each contributed with an RBI to spur the offense. Mosley stole three bases in the inning and seemingly turned every base hit into a double by quickly swiping second during the next at-bat.
The Dolphins batted around for a second consecutive inning in the sixth. Jill Johnson’s single drove in Graysen Gladden, who singled with one out and immediately stole second. Mosley loaded the bases and Gray promptly cleared them with a drive off the wall in left field to give the Dolphins an 11-0 advantage.
“I feel like we put a lot of pressure on the opposing team,” said Gladden, a junior who stole two bases and reached base three times. “We have a lot of fast girls, and we use it to our advantage.”
Gray, a senior, was miffed that she had narrowly missed her first-ever home run — “I was so close. Every time it’s about an inch (away),” she said — but she was excited that her team finally ended a six-year run in which Mosley had to play on the road in the first round of regionals.
“It means a lot,” she said. “We try to stay as positive as possible. … As a team we have a saying, ‘Be all-out.’ We want to be confident and get pressure on the other team and get ahead quickly. We want to put that pressure on.”
Gray and Jill Johnson each finished with a single and a double. Gray drove in four runs and Johnson had two RBIs.
Paige VanTassel, Sydney Ezelle and Rachel Martin each had one hit for Gulf Breeze. Martin’s bloop single to left field drove in Gena Ramos with Gulf Breeze’s lone run.
Mosley 000 155 — 11 11 2
Gulf Breeze 000 001 — 1 3 5
Lopes (W) and Irving; Printiss (L), Ezelle (5) and Martin.