LONGWOOD — The Evangelical Christian School softball team, which features five Seminole Tribe of Florida tribal members, captured the FHSAA Class 1A state championship with a wild 17-14 win against The Geneva School on May 21 at Boombah Soldiers Creek Park in Longwood, about 15 miles north of Orlando.

“Emotionally charged,” ECS coach Johnny Manetta said. “Two teams that I felt were exhausted from yesterday’s games and the season. It was hot. Both teams had players that were cramping. I’m not going to take anything away from [Geneva]. What a strong group of young ladies. Every time we punched, they punched back; every time they punched, we punched back. Luckily, at the end, we came out on top.”

ECS, which has no seniors on its roster, won a state championship for the second year in a row and finished with a 28-3 record. The Fort Myers school features two sets of sisters from the tribe. They are the Billie sisters – Hadyn, Paizley and Paiton – and the Yzaguirre sisters – Angelina and Riley. Hadyn (pitcher), Paizley (first base), Paiton (third base), and Angelina (left field) are starters; Riley, an eighth grader who is the youngest of the group, is a reserve.

Last year’s state championship hero freshman Paiton Billie (2 hits, 3 RBIs, 3 runs scored, 1 walk) and freshman Paizley Billie (2 hits, 1 RBI, 1 run scored) were among the offensive stars in a slugfest between the teams that featured a combined 31 runs and 31 hits, including four home runs, and yet amid all those balls in the air, only one error was committed.

“It was a crazy, tough game,” Angelina Yzaguirre, a junior, said. “I honestly didn’t expect our opposing team to be as hard,” Hadyn Billie, also a junior, said about Geneva, which is located four miles from the park.

The final score was shocking considering ECS entered the game having outscored its opponents a whopping 108 to 7 in its previous 10 games. That miniscule amount of runs allowed was due in large part to Hadyn Billie, who struck out 208 batters this season in 144 innings and compiled a 2.13 ERA.

Being the winning pitcher in the state championship game concluded a remarkable undefeated season in the circle for Billie, whose record was 24-0 or 25-0 (the exact number wasn’t immediately available). She didn’t pitch in the team’s three losses.

The first few innings were uncharacteristically shaky for Billie. Geneva’s Ella Ingram hit a 3-run home run in a four-run top of the first. Manetta said Billie didn’t feel well before the game and it showed early. The coach said it was likely the heat from the previous day’s semifinal – with temperatures in the mid-90s – that contributed to Billie’s performance.

“Her team had her back. She never gave up. I asked her a couple times how she was and she said ‘I’m going to keep fighting,’ and she did,” Manetta said.

Indeed, Billie battled back. In the final three innings, she held Geneva to just one run, which was unearned when a routine infield popup that should have been caught fell to the ground.

It helped that Billie had her sisters on the corners not only in the championship game, but all season.

“Literally, being able to look right and look left and see them on my side because one plays first base and one plays third base made it easier knowing that your home is right there with you,” she said.

With ECS trailing 14-12 in the bottom of the fifth, Paiton Billie reached on an infield hit and proceeded to cause a rundown which helped Anayeli Guzman score. Billie was safe diving back to first base. Two batters later, Samantha Yzaguirre drilled a three-run home run to left field that put ECS ahead, 16-14. Samantha Yzaguirre is not a tribal member, however, she is the aunt of Angelina and Riley Yzaguirre.

“That home run was amazing,” Angelina said.

ECS shortstop Karsyn Mootz shined on offense and defense. She had six RBIs and four hits, including a two-run home run in the first inning. In the field, she made two difficult catches while backpedaling into shallow left center.

A year ago, ECS rode the arm of Zoe Yzaguirre to a state title run as Billie served as the backup. After Yzaguirre graduated and the team lost Kylie Shaw, who graduated early this academic year and joined the Florida Gators softball team, there was no guarantee that the young ECS squad would be hoisting another state championship trophy, but it did.

“We had big shoes to fill. Down this path we made this season; we made our own shoes with the path we created,” Billie said.

Seminoles star in semifinal win

In the state semifinal May 20 in Longwood, all five Seminoles contributed to ECS’s 13-0 win against Tallahassee’s North Florida Christian School. The game ended after four and a-half innings due to the 10-run rule.

Hadyn Billie tossed a two-hitter with three strikeouts in a complete game. She allowed only a single in the third and a double in the fifth. Paizley Billie (1 hit, 1 RBI, 2 runs scored) and Paiton Billie (RBI triple, walk, run scored) provided sparks at the plate. Paizley sprinted all the way around the bases when her squibber to third was thrown into right field. Angelina Yzaguirre had a walk and a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt. She also made two catches in left field. Riley Yzaguirre scored a run as a courtesy runner.

A key inning for ECS came in the second when a determined Samantha Yzaguirre won a gritty battle leading off the inning. She fell behind 0-2 in the count and fouled off four pitches in a row before her hard work paid off with a triple to left field. One out later, Paizley Billie, down 0-2 in the count, did her job by bringing home Yzaguirre on a groundout to make it 2-0.

Whether it was solidly hit extra base hits or small ball execution, ECS cheered for both with equal enthusiasm.

“It’s the little things like that, getting a bunt down in a key situation; hitting a rightside ground ball to let a run score, sacrificing your out for the greater good of the team; it’s stuff we preach the entire season and when they do it, they celebrate it,” said ECS coach Johnny Manetta.