PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -The Northwest Florida softball team will play for the National Championship Saturday afternoon in Yuma, Arizona. The Raiders Friday beating Florida Southwestern, the state champs, in a semifinal round game 3-1. The Raiders getting a solo homer from Holmes alum Karson McGowan in the top of the first. Then a two-run blast by Bre Hughes in the second. All that backing up a 6-hit, four strikeout performance from Northwest ace Cailyn Heyl. Cailyn able to work out of bases loaded jams in the first and the seventh to hold on to that two-run margin.

The win Friday puts Northwest into the title game, which comes Saturday at 3 central, against the same Florida Southwestern team, since it went into the loser’s bracket final and won that game against Wallace, which earlier in the day Friday had beaten Chipola 4-3, ending Chipola’s run at the tournament. And Northwest would have to be beaten twice by the Buccaneers to prevent the Raiders from winning the program’s first National Championship. Coach Andy Lee saying this about both the Holmes alum and his pitcher during a Zoom call Friday afternoon. ”Karson, a little kid from Holmes County High School works her tail off! She’s always doing extra, can’t get her out of the batting cages you know? And her hard work paid off. You know these kids were just hungry, they’re hungry and they’ve been competing all year long and working hard. You know my picture has thrown four complete games and over 100° weather. And I couldn’t say more about her, that’s just unbelievable. I mean, I’ve never seen anything like this before, she is just dominating, Cailyn is doing awesome. The team is supporting her. Everyone is picking each other up. We really got it, the ball is rolling well right now. We’ve just got to take care of business tomorrow.”

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