Coach and Player of the Year: State honors continue to roll in for Eustis softball

The honors continue to roll in for the Eustis High School softball team. 

Panthers coach Brittany Beall and pitcher Libby Levendoski were named 2021 Class 4A Coach and Player of the Year Tuesday by the Florida Dairy Farmers following a statewide vote of coaches and media.

Beall and Levendoski are now eligible for all-classification Coach and Player of the Year honors, which will be announced next week. 

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The pair easily outpointed their nearest competitor, when the final classification voting was announced. Levendoski, totaled 161 points, compared to 108 for Orange Park Ridgeview’s pitcher Brittany Michael.

Beall outdistanced Brooksville Hernando’s Kevin Bittinger for Coach of the Year honors. Beall finished with 177 points, while Bittinger had 109.

Eustis beat Ridgeview 2-0 in the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 4A state semifinals and blanked Hernando 5-0 for the Class 4A state championship. 

In 11 seasons as Panthers coach, Beall has directed Eustis to a 186-66 record, including this year’s  27-1 mark this year. Since 2017, when the Panthers reached the Class 5A state finals, Eustis sports a 105-15 record, an .875 winning percentage. 

Levendoski posted a 24-1 record this season. She sported a 0.46 ERA with 286 strikeouts in 152 innings, while issuing only 15 walks.

In her final three games of the season — the Class 4A-Region 2 championship, along with both state final four outings — Levendoski allowed no runs on just five five hits in 21 innings. She struck out 49 in the span and tossed a no-hitter against Belleview to win the regional championship.

Min Lee wins Symetra stop in Lake

A week after making her first cut of the season on the LPGA Tour, Min Lee earned a one-shot victory at the Mission Inn Resort and Club Championship for her first win of the season on the LPGA’s developmental circuit.

Lee finished with a 54-hole total of 8-under par 211, buoyed by an 8-under 65 during Saturday’s second round — the low round for the tournament. She held off final-round charges by Savannah Vilaubi and Laetitia Beck for her first win in four Symetra starts this season.

The win was worth $30,000 to Lee, giving her $32,183 this season, good for 12th place among the loop’s money leaders. Only a week earlier, Lee finished in tie for 31st place the Pure Silk Championship, an LPGA Tour stop in WIliamsburg, Virginia. 

“(Playing well this week) really tells me I am doing the right thing and thiat I need to keep grinding to make it even better,” said Lee. “My parents and my manager (have helped me the most in my career) because they are always with me. Especially my mom,where she has always been with me while I am in the state.

“Without her, I couldn’t be in this position and I definitely appreciate that.”

The win was Lee’s third career victory on the Symetra Tour and her first since 2019. She spent the the 2020 season playing the TLPGA circuit in Taiwan, choosing to stay closer to home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to her work on the Symetra and TLPGA tours, Lee has played myriad events on the LPGA since debuting in 2015. She finished in a tie for 12th at the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open and tied for 18th at Cambia Portland Class that same year. 

‘River Rat’ prevails on Harris Chain

Ott DeFoe lived up to his nickname as the "Tennessee River Rat", landed more than 73 pounds of bass during the final round to win the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour’s stage three stop last week on the Harris Chain of Lakes. 

The win was worth $100,000 for DeFoe — his third career victory and first in the Sunshine State.

“This is surreal right now,” said DeFoe, who caught 30 bass weighing 73 pounds, 14 ounces on the tournament’s final day. “After the way the week started, this doesn’t even make sense. “I give God all the glory and credit for this win. My decision-making process took me to Lake Griffin the first day, but I had a terrible first day and had to completely change strategies.”

After his disappointing opening day, Ott moved into Lake Harris and caught nearly 40 pounds on a grass points that had a nearby dock. He never left that area over the remainder of the six-day event, fishing grass and docks the rest of the way.

“It was divine intervention that told me to start there,” said DeFoe. “The area was really good and you could work it in a lot different places. The big thing for me was not cranking my motor. 

“Once I went into the stretch, I just put a bait in the water and I fished in and fished out and really maximized my time.”

DeFoe won by 27-1 over Bobby Lane. A local favorite, the Lakeland-based angler landed 22 bass weighing 46-13. 

Brent Chapman finished third, landing 21 lunkers weighing 45-7.