Road trip: After district loss, Matanzas softball team heads to Gulf Breeze for playoff opener

The Pirates fell short against battle-tested Deltona in the district final; next up is the No 4 team in Class 5A.

By Brent Woronoff
| 7:00 a.m. May 7, 2024

Leah Stevens watches her pitch to Deltona's Payton Woerner in the second inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

McKenzie Manhart bats in the fifth inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Deltona's Jaylene Mieres strikes out looking in the fifth inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Emerson Esselstein takes a pitch. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Sophie Strempel tags out Matanzas base runner Juliet Fogel at second base in the sixth inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Deltona shortstop Sophie Strempel throws out Ashley Sampselle in the third inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Ashley Sampselle drives a pitch against Deltona in the district championship game against on May 2. The junior went 1 for 3 in a regional quarterfinal at Gulf Breeze on May 9. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Matanzas freshman Ava Henige (left) runs to first as Deltona first basebam Tessa Guenette fields the ball in the fourth inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Juliet Fogel takes a pitch. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Deltona catcher Payton Woerner (right) tags out Matanzas freshman Gracie Guisbert at the plate in the first inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Leah Stevens gets ready to throw a pitch in the first inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Leah Stevens throws a pitch to Payton Woerner in the second inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Deltona's Andrea Stump hits a bloop single to center field in the fifth inning. Stump would come around to score her second run, giving the Wolves a 5-2 lead. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Deltona's Kaitlyn Caruso strikes out in the third inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Leah Stevens looks over at the first base coach in her final at-bat in the fifth inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Leah Stevens threw a season-high 137 pitches. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Juliet Fogel fields a grounder at shortstop for the Pirates. Photo by Brent Woronoff

McKenzie Manhart led off the bottom of the first with an infield single and scored the first run of the game on a single by Leah Stevens. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Addison Rio flies out to left field in the fourth inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Ruby Fogel hits a single past second base in the third inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Matanzas coach Sabrina Manhart cheers on her players in the bottom of the first inning. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Ashley Sampselle checks her swing in a fifth-inning at-bat. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Deltona's Payton Woerner swings and misses a Leah Stevens pitch. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Leah Stevens throws a pitch against Deltona in the district championship game on May 2 at Daytona State College. Stevens allowed one unearned run and struck out 12 in the regional quarterfinal at Gulf Breeze on May 9. File photo by Brent Woronoff

Leah Stevens times a pitch. Stevens went 2 for 3 with a run batted in. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Deltona's Andrea Stump hits a single up the middle in the fourth inning. Stump went 3 for 4 and scored two runs for the Wolves. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Deltona players celebrate their district championship. Photo by Brent Woronoff

Palm Coast Observer
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Leah Stevens’ arm was sore after the District 4-5A championship softball game. The junior matched her career high with 137 pitches in Matanzas’ 5-3 loss to Deltona on May 2 at Daytona State College.

“I’m battling some arm issues, but I’m just a little sore,” she said.

She was focused on staying loose so she doesn’t injure her arm further, she said, because she knew Matanzas’ season wasn’t over yet.

Two days later, the Pirates celebrated when the Florida High School Athletic Association announced they received the sixth seed in the Region 1-5A playoffs and will travel to third-seeded Gulf Breeze in the Panhandle on Thursday, May 9, in the regional quarterfinals.

That was our saving grace, knowing that we've had an amazing season and that we're able to keep going despite this loss.”
— LEAH STEVENS

“I'm really excited,” Stevens said after the Pirates accepted their district runner-up trophy. “That was our saving grace, knowing that we've had an amazing season and that we're able to keep going despite this loss. So I think that this is really kind of a wake-up call, like this could have been the last game we played this season, and I don't think any of us were ready for that. So this is like our redemption.”

Matanzas has won 19 of 23 games without a senior on the roster. In Deltona (18-5), the Pirates faced a two-time state finalist. The Wolves won the Class 4A state championship in 2022 and were runners-up in Class 5A last season.

The Pirates knew they would be in for a dogfight, Matanzas coach Sabrina Manhart said.

“I'm really proud of my girls fighting inning after inning after inning and really showing that they weren't going to lay down and make it easy for them,” she said.

Stevens, who has an 11-3 record and a microscopic 0.85 earned run average after not being able to play softball last year, allowed just one earned run in the game. However, she struggled to find the strike zone in the fourth inning when Deltona scored three runs to take a 4-1 lead.

After Payton Woerner reached base on an error and scored on a sacrifice fly, Stevens intentionally walked Sophie Strempel, the Wolves’ top hitter, to load the bases with two outs. Stevens then walked in two runs.

“That umpire has a tight zone. We knew that going in,” Manhart said. “Meanwhile, the batters were being smart, making her try to find that zone, and it took her a little bit to get going.”

Deltona scored another run in the fifth on three base hits, but Stevens struck out the side in the sixth and recorded two more strikeouts in the seventh.

“I think I just wasn't hitting my spots very well, so I take responsibility for that,” she said. “I was just telling myself that I'm not missing by a lot. It's small, tiny adjustments that I need to make and if I just start pounding the zone then they're going have to start making adjustments.”

The junior finished with 12 strikeouts in a complete game but walked six and gave up eight hits.

Matanzas, meanwhile, smacked 12 hits. Sophomore Ruby Fogel went 3 for 3, while McKenzie Manhart, freshman Alondra Vincenty and Stevens launched two hits apiece. But the Pirates’ aggressive base running backfired at times with freshman Gracie Guisbert getting thrown out at the plate in the fifth inning and Juliet Fogel getting caught stealing at second base in the sixth. The Pirates, down 5-3, strung together three hits in that inning but couldn’t score.

“We have a fast team and an aggressive team on the bases, and throughout this season we have really produced a lot of runs and created errors and things like that because of our base running,” Manhart said. “I think that late in the game we've got to be a little bit more conservative as we run out of outs to work with. But overall I'm proud that they still went hard inning after inning and didn't change their aggression.”

Deltona, seeded fifth, will travel to fourth seed Gainesville in the regional quarterfinals. The Pirates and Wolves will try to move on from the toughest region in the state. Four of the top six teams in Class 5A are in Region 1 including No. 1-ranked Middleburg and No. 2 Fort Walton Beach. Gulf Breeze, the Pirates’ opponent, is ranked fourth in 5A. Deltona is ranked ninth and Matanzas is ranked 12th, but both teams will be hitting the road in the playoffs. In the Pirates’ case, they will be making a six-hour drive.

“We'll be ready,” Manhart said. “This game definitely helped us prepare for the next step in postseason play. We told our girls that these are the types of teams that you're going to continue to see from here on out.”