BRANFORD — Laila Arnold doesn’t recall who exactly she was listening to. With headphones blocking any outside noise, the Buccaneers’ ace stood patiently in the drizzling rain in Clermont ahead of play resuming in the state championship game.
She wasn’t listening to music. Instead, a motivational speaker told her how to calm down and live in the moment.
“Usually before a game, I get all psyched out,” Arnold said of the practice. “It’s because I get really excited that I have to separate myself… Right before the game, I get these nerves, and I know these nerves are because I’m too excited.”
It nearly worked. Over the course of two days, Arnold listened to the advice as the game got stretched through several lightning delays. When play finally resumed the next morning with two Liberty County runners on base and nobody out, she got to work, getting the next two batters out. In reality, a bad obstruction call at third base extended the inning for the eventual champs. And after nearly 2,600 pitches on the season, she allowed just her fifth home run of the year, breaking a 4-4 tie and signaling the beginning of the end to the best season in Branford softball history.
It was a season highlighted by team and individual accomplishments that Arnold won’t soon forget. Now, she adds one more accolade to the pile, earning this year’s LCR Softball Player of the Year honor, a feat for which she credits others more than herself. Among those are BHS head coach Oscar Saavedra and her pitching coach, former Santa Fe College pitcher Kensley Durrance.
“She (Durrance) knows exactly the nerves that you get before state,” Arnold said. “She knows big games in college. She kind of feels the same things that I do.”
Arnold’s season included an area-best 258 strikeouts through 165.2 innings while giving up just 39 earned runs all year, good for a 1.65 ERA while going 21-4 in the circle, leading her team to its first state runner-up claim. After making it to the Final Four as an eighth-grader with the Bucs, Arnold said getting one step closer to the championship still made Branford history, especially considering that she — like the majority of her teammates — was just a sophomore. All that coming off an injury-plagued 2022 season where she dealt with pain in her shoulders and back.
In the coming weeks and months, she wants to take it one step further.
The journey toward that goal won’t be easy or conventional for the Bucs’ ace. For one, Arnold may be the shortest player to earn LCR Player of the Year honors ever. At 4-foot-11 — or five feet even, if you believe her drivers license — she is well aware of the limitations her height brings to the position.
“Height really does matter (in pitching),” Arnold said. “If you see a 6-foot-2 girl there, she’s probably going to throw fast… You just have to work 10 times harder.
“You have to prove yourself even more because most people look down on me, thinking I’m an underdog. And when the game’s over and everything, they talk about how they took me for granted.”
With her tweaking her mechanics since she was about nine years old alongside her father, Travis, she has developed a host of pitches that she uses to make up for any loss in velocity due to her height.
Travis, who has donned the affectionate nickname ‘Bucket Dad’ in the pair’s training, said he spends about 97% of his time training with Laila serving as her catcher, poached atop a bucket as Laila fires away at him.
“I try to teach Laila that hard work pays off,” Travis Arnold said. “Laila has always been really good under pressure… That’s the biggest thing with Laila, for me, is her demeanor, and that’s kind of what sets her apart from a lot of pitchers.”
Having mentored Arnold since her eighth-grade season, Saavedra said that the extra work she has put in over time has paid off.
“She’s determined,” Saavedra said. “She wants one thing, and she goes after it. She’s aggressive, and whatever it takes, she works hard to get what she needs to accomplish her goals as an athlete.”
It showed early in the season. After getting eliminated by Fort White in last year’s regional finals, Saavedra told his team it needed to get over its mental block when it came to Fort White. Five games into 2023, Arnold and the Bucs had that opportunity. They passed the test with flying colors, with Arnold tossing five innings of one-run ball in the run-rule win over the Indians. After dropping the district championship to their new rivals, Arnold bounced right back in the regional semifinals, holding Fort White to a two-hit shutout while striking out nine batters.
For Arnold, the regional finals win against Aucilla Christian — during which she held the Warriors without a hit while also striking out 14 in the 2-0 win — was just icing on the cake.
“It was just one of the best moments on the field the whole season to me,” she said of the win over Fort White. “We all just felt stoked. We just felt like all the hard work paid off… It didn’t feel like we were already going to win against Aucilla, it just felt like all the momentum was on our side.”
Topping off the Bucs’ run was a state semifinal matchup with defending champion Jay. Arnold carried her team then too, holding the Royals to one run on four hits while striking out 12 batters ahead of her team’s eventual loss to Liberty County in the championship.
Arnold and the core of that team will have two more cracks at a championship ring, entering their junior seasons. Until that time comes, Arnold will continue her sessions with Bucket Dad — while getting support from her mother Kelley who has “been there for everything” — in preparation for that moment.
“It’s a motivation just to see everybody’s faces,” Arnold said. “Just to see how far we’ve come and to make Branford history, it just gives me more motivation.”
ALL-AREA TEAM
P: Laila Arnold
Branford, sophomore
The LCR’s Softball Player of the Year was stellar in the circle for the Buccaneers, finishing the season with a 21-4 record and a 1.65 ERA. She struck out an area-most 258 batters in 165.2 innings to lead BHS to a state runner-up finish.
P: Kadence Compton
Fort White, sophomore
The Indians’ top player was stellar again in the circle this season, striking out 148 batters in 114 innings while finishing with a 2.15 ERA. She crushed the ball again as well, batting .344 with a .406 on-base percentage that included team-highs of five home runs, 20 RBIs and five doubles.
C: Emily Delgado
Columbia, freshman
Led the Tigers with .410 batting average, part of a .471 on-base percentage with 13 RBIs, a home run and a team-high eight doubles. She also had a .993 field percentage and made only one error behind the plate.
1B: Braylyn Federico
Suwannee, junior
Made it on base over half the time with a .512 percentage, which included a .333 average with a team-high 21 RBIs, nine doubles and a triple. She scored 17 runs and made just two errors at first base, posting a .970 fielding percentage.
2B/P: Zoryana Hughes
Columbia, senior
Pitched and played middle infield for the Tigers, posting a team-best .510 on-base percentage while hitting .333 with 12 runs scored, four RBIs, three doubles and a triple. The FAMU signee was at her best in the circle with an area-best 1.41 ERA and a 5-3 record, finishing the year with 86 strikeouts in 69.2 innings while posting an .882 field percentage.
SS: Cloey Criggall
Branford, sophomore
The speedster on the base paths scored an area-most 32 runs while stealing 37 bases, which was by far the most in the area. She batted .318 and had a .359 on-base percentage with five RBIs, two doubles and a pair of triples to go with a .901 field percentage.
3B: Madyson Sikes
Branford, sophomore
Led the area with 31 RBIs, six home runs and 16 doubles, part of a .330 average and a .384 on-base percentage that included 26 runs scored and nine stolen bases. She posted a .944 fielding percentage, making just five errors at the hot corner.
OF: Ellie Frierson
Branford, sophomore
Led the Buccaneers with a .432 batting average and a .481 on-base percentage, hitting three home runs with 23 RBIs and nine doubles. She scored 18 runs and stole five bases while posting a .969 field percentage, making only one error.
OF: Sakiya Merriex
Columbia, sophomore
Led the Tigers with 26 runs scored and six stolen bases while hitting .388 — part of a .456 on-base percentage — with 15 RBIs and four doubles. She made only one error in the outfield and finished with a .941 field percentage.
OF: Brianna Woods
Suwannee, freshman
One of the fastest players in the area who stole a team-most 15 bases and scored 28 runs while hitting .365, part of a .488 on-base percentage with five RBIs, two doubles and a triple. She posted a .960 fielding percentage, making only one error.
DP: Haley Law
Suwannee, junior
Led the area with a .487 batting average and a .523 on-base percentage, scoring a team-most 29 runs. She finished the season with 19 RBIs, six stolen bases and a team-high 12 doubles playing third base for the Bulldogs.
UTIL: McKenna O’Sullivan
Columbia, sophomore
Provided a consistent bat for the Tigers with a .354 average and a .393 on-base percentage, leading the team with 23 RBIs while hitting three home runs and seven doubles with 15 runs scored. She could pitch when called upon as well, posting a 3.39 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 43.1 innings.
UTIL: Madison Brown
Fort White, senior
Led the District 6-1A champion Indians with 23 runs scored, a .358 batting average and a .419 on-base percentage. She hit four doubles in addition to a triple and made only three errors playing first base.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Oscar Saavedra, Branford
Led the Buccaneers to a 25-5 record, their second Final Four berth in three seasons and their best finish in program history. Branford bounced back from a 7-0 loss to Fort White in the District 6-1A championship to win a rematch 3-0 in the regional semifinals before beating Aucilla Christian 2-0 to win the Region 3-1A title. Saavedra’s squad then beat Jay 2-1 in the state semifinals to reach to Class 1A state championship for the first time ever, where the Bucs fell to Liberty County 7-4.