2004 Softball Team

The 2004 softball team is the only girls team to ever win a state championship at Southwest. The Eagles finished 28-3 for their fourth straight 20-win season in Ritz Diaz' final season as head coach. During the regular season, they won the Kissimmee Klassic and Slamfest but, to make its first Final Four appearance since 1991, Southwest needed to defeat rival Palmetto, a team that had beaten the Eagles three times in a row. The Regional championship game against the Panthers took 11 innings, but Alysse Rico's two-run double broke the tie and sent Southwest to the state tournament in Tampa. The Eagles beat Valrico Bloomingdale in the state semis, 1-0. The game went extra innings but, in the top of the ninth, Leanne Penna singled home Monique Williams with the only run of the contest. In the bottom of the inning, Missy Penna retired the side in order to end it. The championship game was less stressful as the Eagles won, 8-0, over Cypress Bay on a Missy Penna 1-hit, 13-strikeout performance. The Herald's All-Dade team had five Southwest players on the first team: Missy Penna, Jackie Yaniga, Rico, Falyn Fabiano and Courtney Graves. Noemi Luciani and Jessica Sciulli made second team, Amanda Purvis won third team honors while Leanne Penna and Melissa Bass were honorable mention. Other team members were Williams, Sandy Acevedo, Melissa Reiner, Stephany Ospina, Ali Meneses and Nicole Menendez. The assistant coaches were Iris Gonzalez and Maria Alvarez and Michelle Parks.