Atlantic Coast wins Gateway softball with 11-run eighth. Here's how
Breaking out with 11 eighth-inning runs and riding a one-hit shutout from Morgan Brown, Atlantic Coast topped Baldwin for the Gateway softball title.
One run. Somehow. That's all Emma Cano had in mind.
"Going up to bat, I was just like, 'I need to move her on third. ' That's all I was really hitting for," the Atlantic Coast senior infielder said. Instead, the ball that left Cano's bat blasted open the floodgates for perhaps the weirdest extra-inning finish in Gateway Conference high school softball final history, overcoming five-time defending champion Baldwin 11-0 in eight innings on April 16.
It's not a mistake: After seven scoreless frames of a pitchers' duel between Atlantic Coast's Morgan Brown and Baldwin's Lilly Hubbard, the Stingrays put up the rare 11-spot in the top of the eighth, turning the tables on the school that denied them one year ago in the tournament for Duval County public schools. Baldwin hadn't lost a Gateway tournament game since April 16, 2019, a 4-0 defeat to Paxon. The eighth-inning surge was more than enough run support for Brown, whose one-hit shutout helped bring a fifth Gateway softball trophy to R.
G. Skinner Parkway after past triumphs in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018. And it continues the winning momentum for Atlantic Coast (14-7), a team that knows how to bounce back.