Agape Freedom Sports LLC

WRITTEN BY: JERIC YURKANIN

Thursday afternoon up at Lakeland, Holy Cross picked up right where they left off over the last three games.

The bats were alive. The energy was there. And once the Lady Crusaders started moving around the bases, it felt like that familiar Holy Cross rhythm was back again.

With the regular season starting to wind down and the playoffs slowly coming into view, this is the time of year when games begin to carry a little more weight. Every inning matters. Every at-bat matters. Every defensive play can shift momentum.

Holy Cross knows that better than most.

Last season, the Lady Crusaders fell short in the second round of the state playoffs, dropping a tough 5-4 game that many did not expect them to lose with the talent they had on the field. But that is softball. Sometimes great teams have one bad inning. One error. One missed opportunity. One play that changes everything.

And when you wear a Holy Cross softball uniform, the expectations are always high.

You do not just join the Lady Crusaders. You step into a standard. You step into a program where the work matters, the details matter, and the commitment to the game is part of the culture. At Holy Cross, they do not just play softball — they live it. They eat it, breathe it, sleep it, and carry that competitive edge every time they step between the lines.

People come to Holy Cross for the education, but athletes also get the opportunity to compete inside one of the most respected softball programs in District 2.

And now, with only a few games left before the postseason, this is the stretch where everything needs to start clicking. The lineup has to feed off each other. The dugout has to bring energy. The defense has to move as one. Players have to know each other’s strengths, trust each other’s instincts, and make the routine plays when the pressure rises.

That is softball.

Holy Cross came into this matchup with a 9-2 record, looking to keep building momentum at the right time of the season.

And from the very first pitch… they made a statement.

Ava Schmidt wasted no time.

On just the second pitch of the game, Schmidt launched a shot over the center field fence for a leadoff home run, and just like that, Holy Cross had a 1-0 lead and all the momentum. You could feel it shift instantly — from the dugout to the field to the energy in the air.

The pressure didn’t stop.

Lila Kolcharno worked a walk. Jules Galella followed with another. Then Peyton Graboske stepped in and delivered a swing that changed the entire tone of the afternoon — a line-drive home run to center that brought both runners home.

“I was just seeing the ball really well today and staying within my approach. I wasn’t trying to do too much, I was just focused on making solid contact and using the whole field. Once I got that first hit, I felt more relaxed and confident in the box, and everything just started to click from there.” Said Holy Crosses, Peyton Graboske

She continued: “In those moments, I try to slow the game down and keep things simple. My mindset is to stay calm, trust my preparation, and focus on getting a good pitch to hit. I know my job is to put together a quality at-bat and do whatever I can to help the team, whether that’s driving in runs or just keeping the inning alive.”

In a matter of minutes, it was 4-0.

And it still felt like Holy Cross was just getting started.

Claire Helring kept things moving with a single. McKinley Griffiths and Maya DeSantis battled through at-bats that kept pressure on Lakeland’s defense. Then came more damage. Ella Fitzpatrick delivered a run-scoring single. Bauman followed with another hit to center, pushing the lead to 6-0.

And before Lakeland could catch its breath, Schmidt came back around and drove in another run with a line-drive single.

Seven runs.

One inning.

Total control.

Lakeland turned to Olivia Lach in the circle to try and slow things down, and to her credit, she settled things and found a rhythm. But the early damage had already been done.

Lakeland showed some fight in the bottom half of the first. Mick Eremo reached. Olivia Lach worked a walk. A sacrifice moved both runners into scoring position, and for a moment, it felt like there might be a response coming.

But Holy Cross didn’t blink.

Strikeout. Groundout. Inning over.

That’s what good teams do — they answer pressure with composure.

From there, the Crusaders settled into their rhythm. The defense tightened up. The pitching stayed in control. Lakeland struggled to string anything together as Holy Cross kept the game clean and steady.

In the third, they added more.

After Schmidt reached, Jules Galella came through with a line-drive single to center, bringing her home and stretching the lead to 8-0.

“My approach is to keep it simple, and my job is to get on base for Peyton to hit me home. I adjusted to stay back and think opposite field,” said Jules Galella.

She added, “Our team’s chemistry is one of the strongest things about us. We are always laughing and having fun or cracking jokes with each other. We always keep one another up, and that shows who we are as a team.”

That chemistry showed up in every inning.

In the fifth, Holy Cross kept it rolling. Kolcharno reached, and once again Galella delivered with an RBI single. Graboske followed with a hit. Myers added another, driving in a run as the lead stretched to 10-0.

No panic. No forcing things. Just steady, confident softball.

Lakeland kept competing. Lach battled in the circle and made key adjustments to slow things down after the first inning.

“My mindset was to get in there and try to get out of the inning. My goal as a pitcher is to always throw my best and trust my team behind me to make the plays,” said Lakeland’s Olivia Lach.

She added, “One big adjustment I made was to keep throwing my changeup. Changing speeds helped keep the batters off balance, which allowed us to stay in the game.”

But against a lineup like Holy Cross, one mistake can turn into three hits, and three hits can turn into runs in a hurry.

That’s exactly what happened.

Holy Cross finished with 10 runs on 14 hits, with production up and down the lineup. Peyton Graboske led the way with a big day at the plate, while Ava Schmidt set the tone early and never let up. Jules Galella delivered in key spots, and the depth of the lineup showed with contributions from multiple players, including Claire Helring and Peach Myers.

In the circle, Schmidt was just as dominant as she was at the plate, tossing a complete-game shutout. She allowed just one hit over five innings while striking out seven and walking two, keeping Lakeland from ever finding a rhythm.

“Ava is an outstanding player. She starts us off so strong at the top of the lineup. It sets us up to get ahead early and build momentum. It gives the team the energy we need to keep it going throughout the whole game,” said Galella.

Lakeland managed just one hit on the day and continued to battle through every inning, but the early surge from Holy Cross proved to be too much to overcome.

And that’s what stands out the most about this team right now.

It’s not just the talent.

It’s the timing.

It’s the way everything is starting to come together at the right point in the season. The swings look confident. The approach looks disciplined. The defense looks connected. The energy feels different.

And when a team like Holy Cross starts clicking like that this late in the year, it becomes dangerous.

Because this isn’t just about one win on a windy afternoon in Lakeland.

This is about momentum.

This is about a team finding its rhythm at exactly the right time — heading into the stretch where every game matters just a little bit more, where every inning carries weight, and where the difference between a good season and a special one comes down to execution in the biggest moments.

Right now, Holy Cross looks like a team that understands that.

And more importantly…

A team that’s starting to play like it believes it.

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