The Montverde Academy softball team pulled off one of its most dramatic wins of the season Thursday night, rallying from their final strike before exploding in extra innings to defeat Eustis High School 7–4 in eight innings in Eustis.
The moment that changed the game came in the top of the seventh inning when Andrea Gomez delivered a clutch two-out, two-strike single to score Addie Poe and Missy Odom, to tie the game 3–3 and save the Eagles from defeat.
MVA entered the inning trailing 3–1. Two outs later, the Eagles were still down 3-1. Poe started the seventh inning rally by drawing a one-out walk. Then Odom followed with a single to move Poe into scoring position. Nevaeh Williams then advanced both runners with a groundout, leaving the Eagles down to their final out. That is when Gomez stepped up and gave the Eagles new life. She delivered a delivered the game-tying on a 1-2 count to MVA new life.
Then in the eighth inning, the Eagles capitalized on that new life.
Starting the eighth inning with the international tiebreaker rule in effect, Audrey Vivino was placed on second base. She quickly moved to third on a passed ball. Then Cali Flowers drew a walk to put runners on the corners before Elin Gunkel loaded the bases with another walk.
Carly Howard broke the tie with an RBI single to score Vivino and give Montverde Academy a 4–3 lead. Reish followed with a sacrifice fly to score Flowers and extend the lead to 5–3. Poe then added an RBI single to bring home Gunkel, and Williams capped the four-run outburst with another run-scoring single to score Howard and make it 7–3.
Eustis pushed across one run in the bottom of the eighth, but MVA had more than enough to earn the win and improve to 6-0 this season.
Earlier in the game, the Eagles had struck first when Odom drove in Colby Reish with an RBI single in the top of the first inning. Eustis answered with a run in the bottom of the first to tie the game, then added another in the second to take a 2–1 lead. The Panthers extended their advantage to 3–1 with another run in the fifth before MVA's dramatic seventh-inning comeback.
Odom led the Eagles at the plate with a perfect 4-for-4 performance, scoring one run and driving in another. Gomez finished with the biggest hit of the night, recording two crucial RBIs with her game-tying single in the seventh.
Williams earned the victory in dominant relief, pitching the final 5.2 innings while allowing just one hit and two unearned runs while striking out nine.
The Eagles return to action Friday when they travel to face Bartow High School at 6:00 p.m.
