JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Brick by brick by brick.
Every victory by the Episcopal softball team this season got the same treatment, with the Eagles laying a brick down to represent the building of the program. Players decorated them. Coaches talked about what it represented.
And those bricks began to add up.
Eagles coach Kasse Eppley saw that as a visual way to represent the steps taken and the path that Episcopal is heading down. Nearly two dozen bricks later, the Eagles (23-5) have paved their way to the Class 3A state semifinals where they face Windermere Prep (24-1) on Wednesday at noon in Clermont.
It is the first state semifinal trip for the Eagles since reaching the final four in 2000, and just the second in Episcopal fast-pitch history.
Should the Eagles win, they would play in their first championship game on Thursday at 7 p.m.
They’d like to add a couple more bricks when they return home.
“The oldest player on the team did the first brick and then we went all the way down to the actually the three players we’ve brought up from the middle school team at the end of the year, everybody’s decorated and did a brick,” Eppley said. “And so now we’ve actually had to go back to the top again and start over. So, that’s been a great problem to have.”
Episcopal has had an exceptional season from start to finish, but it has been at its best down the stretch.
The Eagles blanked Baldwin in their playoff opener and then used a walk-off blast in the bottom of the ninth by Maddie Latta to stun West Nassau. The big bats continued in the regional final, with Latta belting two homers and Grace Jones and Peyton Namyslowski adding shots.
Latta has been sensational all season long (20-2, 270 Ks, 143.1 IP, 0.34 ERA), but she’s been airtight in the playoffs. In three postseason games, she’s whiffed 35 and allowed just two earned runs. Senior captains Latta, Jaclyn Conner and Kami Eppley have seen the program grow from no playoffs in 2019 to two wins away from a state championship now.
“They’ve been leaders, even when they were younger. But they’ve seen what worked, what didn’t work, and they knew what they wanted to bring to the table to make sure everybody was included,” Kasse Eppley said. “And that they had the best season that they could have.”
Conner has been playing with Episcopal since seventh grade and said that this season has ben the best “of my entire life” because of how close the team is.
“It’s phenomenal, but it’s also bittersweet knowing that this is the last time,” Conner said. “But it’s also so phenomenal that I can do it with the girls that I’ve been playing with for so long and the girls I really love like my family.”