KISSIMMEE, FL--Oakleaf's Kelsey Sweatt out-dueled Scott County's Kennedy Sullivan and Tracy Ferguson drove in the wining run in the bottom of the eighth, as the Knights captured the Kissimmee Klassic Blue Division Championship with a 1-0 Saturday night.

"It was a great team victory against a really good team," Oakleaf head coach Christina Thompson said. "They put a lot of pressure on us all game and we were fortunate enough to make one more play then they did."

The Cardinals had the only real threat in regulation, putting their first two runners on base to start the top of the seventh. But Grace Mullins popped out to third before Mattea Ware moved both runners over on a hard ground out to third. Sweatt then got out of the inning by striking out Madison Moss.

With the scored tied through seven innings, the game went to a Texas-tiebreaker, with each team starting the inning with a runner on second.  

In the eighth, Scott County started inning with Moss on second. She moved to third on Haley Fain's sacrifice bunt, but with one out Jesica Tucker's squeeze bunt did not get her home and Sweatt ended the threat by striking out Hannah Davis.

Oakleaf would win it in their half of the eighth. With Haley Willis starting on second, Jenna Curtis moved her to third with a bunt before Ferguson's squeeze bunt looped over the head of third baseman Fain for the game-winning hit.

"We noticed all game their third baseman was super aggressive crashing on bunt situations," Thompson said.  "The plan was to have Tracy push a hard bunt past third. She ended up popping it up but fortunately it looped over the third baseman's head."

The loss was a tough one for Sullivan, who was named the most valuable defensive player in the tournament. She took a no-hitter into the sixth, finished the game with a three-hitter with eight strikeouts and one walk. She was the winning pitcher in two of the Cardinals' victories.

Sweatt was the tournament's overall MVP.  She was the winning pitcher in three games, including a four-hitter in the championship game where she struck out 10 and walked one. She appeared in all four games, going 3-0 with a save. She worked 19.1 innings, allowing no runs, seven hits and striking out 19.

The Knight's Angela Agurkis earned Most Valuable Offensive honors with two game-winning hits.

Although top-seeded, Oakleaf's trip to to the championship game was anything but easy.  After recording a pair of close shutout wins in their first two games, the Knights found themselves down 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh to Viera in the semifinals.

But taking advantage of a hit and a couple of errors, Alex Acevedo's one-out sacrifice fly made it 3-2, before Agurkis ripped a two-run double to the right-center field gap to score two and give the Knights a 4-3 win.

Scott County's road to the finals was equally difficult.  After surviving a 5-4 nail biter against 15th seeded Auckland Christian, 5-4, the Cardinals beat both Tampa Chamberlain (3-1) and Bradenton Lakewood Ranch (5-2) to advance to the title game.

Thompson believes the tournament's tough competition will serve her team well as the district playoffs loom in the near future.  

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the Blue Bracket was 16th seeded Winter Springs, which lost its first tournament game to top-seeded Oakleaf, 1-0, but then raced to three straight wins to claim third place in the tournament's top division.

During the run, the Bears beat both state power St.Thomas (13-3) and nationally ranked Gainesville (11-2).  "Probably one of the top performances in the toughest bracket," Tournament Director Roger Jones said.  "To lose 1-0 to the top seed and then just breeze through Branden River, St. Thomas Aquinas and Gainesville was really and impressive feat."

In the Gold Division, second-seeded Gulliver Prep out-lasted Cooper City, 7-5, to win that division.  St. Petersburg's Canterbury defeated Eau Gallie in the Gold Division third place game,13-6.

In all, the tournament featured 29 currently ranked in their state polls.

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