Diamond Dandies

This will be a fairly fine couple of weeks if you enjoy, as I do, high school girls' softball.

Over the next two weeks the county's two high school teams will spotlight quality softball on both ends of the county.

For those who have recently arrived in the county, are traveling through or staying a spell, or just returned from the moon, these are salad days for softball in this county.

The Wewahitchka High School Lady Gators are the defending Class 1A state champion and though they lost a nucleus of seniors from that team, they seem to have the winning formula bottled at Lady Gator Field.

When a team mashes a school season record for home runs in the first 11 games, arcing over-the-fence blasts, well that team is one to watch for another championship run.

The team has lost only to Tallahassee Lincoln, just a few size classifications up there above Wewahitchka, one of the smallest schools enrollment-wise in Class 1A.

And the Lady Gators somewhat avenged that loss this past weekend by winning the Tallahassee Lincoln Invitational Tournament.

As for Port St. Joe, the program is steadily reaching for the same rung of the ladder where the Lady Gators are perched, with a nice mix of upper- and under-classmen on the roster.

Of course, as with softball in general, it all starts on the mound and that is where Gulf County should find particular pride.

Not just sports fans, but all residents because in juniors Samantha Rich and Kayla Minger you have the definition of young ladies.

They are somewhat opposites, Rich tall and athletic with uncommon fluidity of motion while Minger, a genuine power pitcher, seems to uncoil every pitch from a burst of arm and leg drive as if having been ignited.

They each have a repertoire of pitches starting with almost untouchable fastballs, can change speeds at any count, possess almost unerring command of the strike zone and bear down when most needed - Minger's three straight strikeouts to get out of a bases-loaded no outs jam last week a fine example.

On top of that, there is grace about each that would make any parent proud.

They have played together on summer teams that have battled in prestigious national tournaments, have tossed practice to players at Gulf Coast Community College, carry good grades and do all that with an ease and humility not commonly found in so uncommonly talented athletes.

And before every game the two play against each other, there is a shared hug near the mound, as if to say, "I'm going to try like heck to beat you, but if lose I must, I'd rather it be to you."

Each and every time it is a wonderful and welcome moment in the current uber-competitive sports environment we live in.

They say it all the time about pro athletes, but Gulf County sports fans should enjoy Minger and Rich, who have been aces for their teams since arriving as freshmen, while they can because after next season there are bigger stages ahead for those two.

In any case, take stock of the next two weeks, with the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test largely out of the way and the stretch run of the season ahead for Port St. Joe and Wewahitchka.

The Lady Tiger Sharks will host regional power North Florida Christian at 7 p.m. ET this Thursday.

At the same time, starting at 6 p.m. ET, the Lady Gators will host Riverdale, Tenn., currently ranked No. 11 in the nation - yep, the nation - according to rivals.com, a scholastic sports web site.

The following night the two county teams will face off for the first time this season, at 7 p.m. ET on Friday in Wewahitchka.

The first meeting of the teams was to be March 7 but weather got in the way.

So that game will be made up next Thursday, March 27, at 7 p.m. ET at Port St. Joe.

Almost certainly those two games will serve as prelude to a district championship match-up in mid-April when the tournament is played at Liberty County and with the right bounces and good health the two squads could face each other again in a best-of-three series for the regional title.

And before they get to that district title game, each team has tough sledding ahead.

State power Lakeland McKeel and area big-school Goliath Niceville come to Wewahitchka in early April.

Port St. Joe will travel to a tournament in Bell and also hits the road to play always-tough Tallahassee Maclay and Springfield Rutherford, which took the Lady Tiger Sharks to nine innings in a 1-0 victory last Friday.

To Gulf County sports fans the only word left to say is simple - enjoy.