Ocoee Junior All-Stars fall short in sectional thriller

ST. CLOUD — A thrilling game ended in a heartbreaking loss for the Ocoee Little League Junior All-Stars team on July 20 in the Section 5 Championship.

A close call at home plate ended the comeback attempt Ocoee was mounting, giving St. Cloud the 5-3 victory and a trip to the state tournament.

A two-out single hit by Matthew Wolfal saw a runner on second for Ocoee try to score. Although the runner seemed to have avoided the tag put on by the catcher for St. Cloud at the plate, he was called out, which ended the game. 

It was a tough loss to stomach, but afterward, head coach Josh Wolfal expressed his pride in the way his boys played throughout the tournament.

“I was really proud of my boys for continuing to fight and continuing to believe — we took on a team that went to the state championship last year, and we gave them everything we had,” Wolfal said.

After edging Windermere a week earlier in the District 14 Championship, Ocoee was within a game of the state tournament after it defeated Union Park 13-9 on July 19. 

The championship against St. Cloud was a back-and-forth affair, with Ocoee taking an early lead before falling behind 2-1. A pair of errors — one made by each team — resulted in two runs apiece, and the score was 4-3 going into the bottom of the sixth, when St. Cloud added a run.

During Ocoee’s final at-bat, the first two hitters were retired, but the boys did not give up and tried to take advantage of a two-out walk and a batter who reached base on an interference call on the St. Cloud catcher. Although a call that could have gone either way ended his team’s season, Wolfal recognized the tough defeat as an opportunity for his team to build character and was encouraging in his postgame talk.

“That’s what we talked about — whether you win or lose, you play with character,” Wolfal said. “We came into this game giving God praise, and we gave praise right there just now and thanked him for the character of these kids.”

Ocoee’s Junior All-Stars finished the postseason with a 5-2 record.

Contact Steven Ryzewski at [email protected].