LONGWOOD — Eustis junior pitcher Carson Roden seemed to get stronger as the game went on Wednesday, leading the Panthers to a 3-2 revenge victory against Wakulla in a Class 3A state softball semifinal at the Boombah-Soldiers Creek Park.

Roden, who faced just three batters over the minimum through the first six innings, struck out 6 as Panthers advanced to the Thursday state final. Eustis (22-5), ranked No. 5 in 3A , will face No. 1-ranked Somerset Academy (23-6) of Miami at 6:30 p.m.

The Panthers, Class 4A state champs a year ago , are going after their third FHSAA championship in five years.

“We’ve just prepared all season and worked hard,” said first-year Eustis coach Tyra Bowers, who was brought to tears after the victory. “They want it. These girls may be young, but they are gritty, they all just work together and do what they need to do. They just want it more.”

Things got a little stressful for Eustis in the final inning. After a one-out single, Wakulla (22-5-1) scored a run on a throwing error, but Roden got the final hitter to fly out to junior centerfielder Adrianna Covino, who made several nice plays on the day. Also in the seventh inning, Covino ran down a tricky, short pop fly behind second base.

Eustis got on the board first after a leadoff double by sophomore first baseman Kendall Kemp, who laced a shot over the left fielder’s head in the third inning. Kemp scored on a throwing error. Skylar Scott beat out an infield single in the fifth inning, and also scored on a War Eagles error. Wakulla had 5 errors in the game.

The Panthers scored their final run in the sixth after sophomore second baseman Emmy Luke raced all the way to third after hitting a towering fly ball to short right-center that was bobbled and booted. She scored on a single by junior third baseman Brooklyn Mason.

Roden, who is 18-4 on the season, was consistent all day, allowing just 3 hits. It was 90 degrees at first pitch and just kept getting hotter, but Roden wasn’t bothered.

“You have to just thrive off the heat. There’s nothing you can do about it, so you just have to use it to your advantage and let it push you harder,” Roden said. “I just knew I needed to do this for my team and just prove to people who doubted us along the way and people who weren’t there supporting us that we could do it.

“We lost half of our varsity team from last year and no one thought we could do it so we had to prove them wrong.”

Wakulla beat Eustis 4-0 in a March 18 game with its ace senior, Charley Butler pitching a 1-hitter. Butler, who was signed by Auburn, pitched a perfect game in the War Eagles region final victory. She gave up four hits and struck out four batters on Wednesday.