The Raiders of Santa Fe softball team won the 2026 Florida State Babe Ruth Softball Championships for the 10U elite division on Monday after dominant district play and a final-inning victory.
The Raiders beat Fossil Park, 7-6, in the championship game after trailing for the whole game, but the team loaded the bases in the fifth and final inning and scored four runs to capture gold.
Coach Chuck McCray said the team won district play with a score of 69-0 across all the games. Winning the district placed the girls into the elite division, and the Raiders allowed only one run during the opening three games of the state tournament.
McCray said the team is known as the Cardiac Kids because of their habit of coming from behind during the previous season. That experience helped in the championship game.
“We had kind of coasted the entire season, and we found ourselves with our ace on the mound and down six runs,” McCray said.
The star pitcher, Malayna Yarrell, had tweaked her back earlier in the tournament, and Fossil Park ran up the score in the first two innings. McCray said the key moment was subbing Keeley Marthenzie in during the third inning to pitch. He said she held Fossil Park at bay while the offense gained ground with another run.
Entering the fifth down by three, McCray said the final batter, Selma Schneider, earned a walk. At the top of the order, batters hit an out to shortstop followed by an infield single, a down-the-line double to gain a run, a walk and a bunt to load the bases.
Another infield single drove in the game-tying run before an errant pitch from Fossil Park allowed the winning run to score.
“It was a great ball game—fans were into it,” McCray said. “There was no unsportsmanlike conduct by anybody. It was just two great [fan bases] cheering for their team.”
McCray has been with the team since 2020 and called it a solid system. The same group has had a string of successes since 6U, winning five of the last six district tournaments and several runner-up positions in the elite state tournament before this year.
The 2026 6U elite and 12U open teams for Santa Fe finished as runners-up during their tournaments.