During its first varsity fastpitch softball season nearly 30 years ago, Oak Ridge High School crashed the Florida High School Athletic Association tournament and claimed the area’s first state championship in that version of the sport.
The Pioneers scored early, then hung on for a 5-4 win against Dunedin for the Class 4A title at Clearwater’s Bomber Stadium on this date in 1991.
“It went back and forth until we got the clinching run and held on in the bottom of the seventh to pull it off,” recalls then-coach Gina McFerren, who also coached volleyball at Oak Ridge.