Doral Academy rallies to advance to state softball final with walk-off in eighth inning
With the Class 6A state softball semifinal on the line on Friday, Doral Academy freshman Zoey Abdullah stood in the batter's box against Bloomingdale senior Natalie Cable, a UCLA recruit.
Despite the fact that Cable has struck out more than 1,000 batters in her prep career, Abdullah got the job done, lofting a walk-off sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as Doral prevailed, 5-4, in Longwood.
'I don't usually celebrate much,' Doral coach Willie Viruet said, 'but I had to throw up a couple of fist pumps after this one.'
Doral (30-1) will play the Pace Patriots (24-3) on Saturday at 2 p.m. for the state championship.
A victory would give Doral its second state title and its first since 2021.
But the Doral Firebirds, ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 4 in the nation, according to MaxPreps, almost didn't make it to Saturday's final.
Doral fell behind 3-1 in the fourth inning despite the fact that two of the Firebirds' greatest former players were in the dugout on Friday, helping Viruet and his staff coach. Those two players are: Amanda 'Tuta' Ramirez, who just graduated from the University of Pittsburgh where she served that team's catcher; and Louisville pitcher Alyssa Zabala.
'There were a bunch more of our alumni sitting in the stands,' Viruet said.
Perhaps all that support inspired Doral senior Sarah Breaux, a Clemson recruit who homered in the bottom of the fourth, cutting Bloomingdale's lead to 3-2.
That was Breaux's 14th homer of the season, which is one behind team leader Anabela Abdullah, who is a Texas recruit and Zoey's older sister.
Doral then trailed 4-2 entering the bottom of the sixth. But the Firebirds started a rally with a Breaux walk and single from Leyani Viruet, the coach's daughter.
Both runners came home, including Viruet, who scored the tying run on an RBI single from Sara Utera.
The game then went to extra innings, where the designated runner starts each frame at second base.
So, with a speedy runner on second and no outs, Doral pitcher Meagan Villazon retired Cable on a pop-out in one of the game's biggest moments.
Earlier in the game, Cable had slugged her 15th homer of the season on a Villazon curve.
This time, Villazon won the battle.
'I was a little worried because I had missed my spot and she homered off me in her previous at-bat,' Villazon said. 'This time, I just tried to spin the ball as best I could.
'I got the result I wanted, and I was hyped.'
Villazon got the next two batters, also on pop-outs, ending the threat.
'Meagan didn't have her best stuff today, but we battled the whole game,' Coach Viruet said. 'We didn't make any errors, and we defended the bunt well.'
After escaping that jam, Doral started the bottom of the eight with Utera on second as the designated runner. Ashley Tremont got on base with an infield single, moving Utera to third.
Then, after an unproductive out, Abdullah delivered against Cable, who finished with 10 strikeouts.
Abdullah's fly ball to right-center was not hit that deep, though, causing an anxious moment or two.
'The ball hung there for a second,' Viruet said. 'Everything paused in my mind until I saw it was deep enough.'
This was the first time all year that Doral played extra innings. And it was just Doral's second one-run game.
Next up is Pace, which is ranked fourth in the state and 18th in the nation.
Pace won the 6A state last year with Jayden Heavener, who is now pitching for LSU.
This year, Pace relies on sophomore pitcher Hannah DeMarcus, who is 23-2 with a 0.29 ERA and 15 shutouts.
In fact, Pace has shut out its past four opponents. Overall, this season, Pace has posted 18 shutouts and held opponents to just one run five times.
Also, Pace has lost just two games all season to Florida schools.
Doral, which is undefeated against Florida schools, will counter DeMarcus with Villazon, who is 25-1 with a 0.66 ERA.
This will be the first meeting between Doral and Pace, according to Viruet.
'We've checked them out,' Viruet said when asked about scouting Pace. 'We do our homework. Coaching travel ball for more than 10 years helps. We've seen a lot of their kids.
'(DeMarcus) is a competitor. They have elite pitching in that Pace program. But we are 'ride or die' with (Villazon).'
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