By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Host St. Cloud beat Celebration, 11-1, in five innings Tuesday at the 7A District 6 softball tournament at Mike Clark Field to earn a regional playoff spot.

The Bulldogs (18-7) meet Harmony, a 15-0 winner over Oak Ridge, for the district championship today at 7 p.m. at St. Cloud.

The winner will host the 7A-5 runner-up Wednesday in the regional quarterfinal round, while the loser will travel to the 7A-5 champion.

Osceola played Gateway and Lake Minneola met East Ridge in the 7A-5 semifinal round Wednesday. Those winners meet for the championship at Osceola’s Coffey Field Friday at 7 p.m.

After Celebration took a 1-0 lead, St. Cloud struck for five runs in the bottom of the first inning to take command. Kadesia McCowen, Sheena Hunsicker, Emily Blackmore, Breanna Benge and Brianna Gilbert all scored for the Lady Bulldogs.

Pitcher Emma Wells, after struggling in the first inning, settled down and pitched five innings for the win.

Payton Lamere singled and scored Celebration’s only run.

St. Cloud Coach Ray Whobrey, in his first season with the Bulldogs, said his team played well in its district opener.

“They came out ready to play. I’m proud of them,” he said.

Whobrey said the Lady Bulldogs have steadily improved this season.

“We’re young, we’ve lost most of our games because we made a lot of mistakes that beat us,” he said. “Lisa Poon and Brenna Benge both did a good job for us with big hits, and I thought Emma threw a good game.”

Whobrey sees this as the beginning of a promising era at St. Cloud as this roster matures and is bolstered by an influx of talent from a strong travel club feeder program.

“We’ve got some good ones coming up. It’s going to be fun,” Whobrey said.

But, the Lady Bulldogs will face a strong Harmony team today that has memories of last year’s run to the state championship game.

“Harmony is very talented, very good,” Whobrey said. “It’s going to be a challenge for our girls, but we’ll be ready.”

Harmony (19-7) scored 10 runs in the first inning and used 18 players in the three-inning game against outclassed Oak Ridge.

“We brought up four JV players and got just about everyone in,” Horns Coach Mike Clark said.

Clark expects a challenge from St. Cloud.

“It’s not easy to beat a good team three times in a season. We’re going to have to play well,” Clark said.

Celebration Coach Chris Lavoie saw his team’s season end with a 6-17 record.

“We’re really young. We’re all sophomores and freshmen, and we’ve played a lot of good teams,” Lavoie said. “We made progress. Overall, it wasn’t a bad season.”

Gateway beat Liberty, 15-0, Monday to advance in the 7A-5 tournament.