A whirlwind softball tour for Lakewood Ranch's Goelz family

Talk about a whirlwind softball tour.

After coaching the Lakewood Ranch High softball team to its second straight Class 7A state championship on May 28 in Clermont, T.J. Goelz and his wife Liz, an assistant coach with the Mustangs, boarded a bus back to Lakewood Ranch.

Upon arrival, they unloaded the team's equipment, took a quick three-hour nap and then boarded a plane for Roanoke, Virginia.

From there, they rented a car and then made an hour-long drive to Blacksburg, Virginia, where their daughters, Avery and Kinsey, members of the University of Florida softball team, were preparing for the Gators' final game of a best-of-3 super regional series against Virginia Tech.

“I didn’t know exactly when they were going to get there,” Avery said. “I always look for my parents before I play. When they aren’t there, it makes me sad. It was cool just looking in the stands and all of a sudden my parents were there.”

Their presence certainly helped.

Avery had a huge game at the plate — she went 2-for-2 with a double, sacrifice fly, three runs batted in and a run scored in Florida's 12-0 victory.

“I was like, ‘well, you flew all the way here, I gave you something to watch.’ ” Avery said.

With the win, the Gators qualified for the Women’s College World Series, which set the wheels in motion for another trip, this time to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,

“It was fun to make those arrangements," T.J. said. "How often do you get this opportunity? We (Lakewood Ranch softball) had just put in a long season. We were still riding off a good high:

"We reached (our) goal and watched all the girls being absolutely ecstatic after winning another state championship. Let’s just make it a heckuva weekend.

“Man, this (was) the best week ever.”

The World Series experience

T.J. and Liz got on a flight to Oklahoma that landed at 1 a.m. Thursday prior to the Gators’ World Series game that night.

In the 26-year history of the Florida softball program, the Gators have qualified for the World Series 11 times, but this was the first since 2019.

“Since it was my first time ever being there, it was really cool to see how they do things,” Avery said. “It was crazy to think we were one of the eight teams left.”

And in the first World Series game, she shined again.

She went 2-for-3 with three runs batted in Florida’s 7-1 victory over Oregon State.

“Stepping onto the field for the first time with 15,000 people watching you. That was the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of,” Avery said. “I didn’t even have butterflies. It was surreal. I just got locked into the game and forgot everyone was around me. It was really cool.”

And her parents were just as thrilled — “The first game was awesome,” T.J. said.

Liz and T.J. often talked about experiencing the Women's College World Series long before their daughters made it.

“A bucket-list item,” T.J. said. “We were going to take the girls or take the travel team.  Then we just said let’s wait to see if our kids get a chance to go and let that be the first time we go because that would be so much better. We were pretty fortunate it worked out.”

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Even though the Gators lost their next two games — 2-0 to Oklahoma State and 8-0 to UCLA — it was a great experience for the players and fans.

“They really make you feel pretty special,” Avery said.

“They do it right,” T.J. added.

T.J. was most impressed with the number of fans non-affiliated with a particular team who attend events, like the tailgate parties, outside the ballpark.

“They had a fan experience,” T.J. said. “I’m certainly not comparing it to the Super Bowl, but it is the Super Bowl of softball. It’ll probably be something Liz and I would do in the future.”

No sophomore jinx

After playing 50 games, including 41 starts as a freshman alternating between first base and the outfield, Avery improved her batting average from .232 to .268 in her sophomore year.

It was a breakout year in more ways than one.

“It was a little bit less of the freshmen nerves, like I didn’t want to make a mistake kind of thing,” said Avery, the 2018 Herald-Tribune Player of the Year. “I was a little bit more comfortable where I was.

“Being a freshman I wasn’t the best at talking to my teammates. I was too nervous and kept to myself a lot. This year I really tried to get out of that shell. It was so much better knowing my teammates had my back. They just actually knew who I was.”

Even when she struggled, her mood remained positive and then it really took off in the postseason.

“I realized I’ve got nothing to lose,” she said. “I really want to go to the World Series at this point, so I’m going to do everything I can to get there. So I just had all the confidence in the world, even though I wasn’t getting hits. It just eventually turned into hits for me.”

There was no doubting her defense, though. Avery made just three errors in 350 chances for a .991 fielding percentage at first base.

“On the field, I always had confidence in my defense,” she said. “I’m just glad I got a chance to play first base a lot more this year and show what I can do there.”

Sisterly love

Avery also gained a close fan in her older sister Kinsey, who transferred from Mississippi State to play her redshirt senior season with her.

While she only played in seven games and went 0-for-10 at the plate with a run scored and two runs batted in, Kinsey was involved in a one of the SEC’s top plays of the season, diving to stop a grounder and tossing the ball to Avery for a Goelz-to-Goelz putout.

“She’s so much fun to have around,” Avery said. “She always has positive energy. She’s my biggest supporter. Every time I come back into the dugout, whether I do good or bad, she’s right there patting me on the shoulder.”

The two will be teammates next year, too, as Kinsey was granted a COVID year and will be a sixth-year senior as she completes her Master’s degree.

Softball never ends

After Oklahoma, Liz and T.J. retreated to their second home in Sugar Mountain, North Carolina, for a week.

But he returned Friday for the start of travel ball with the Tampa Mustangs, a team he has led to two national championships.

The season begins with practice Saturday and a game Wednesday at State College of Florida against New Florida Vibe, a pro team based out of Bradenton with players from all around the country, before the first big tournament of the summer next weekend in Atlanta.

As for Avery, she signed to play for the Lakewood Ranch Rodeo in the Florida Gulf Coast League for the summer.

There, she plans to work on her slap hitting and bunting to add to her offensive arsenal.

“I want to keep getting more reps and keep my confidence where it is,” she said. “I want to mix in more of the speed side of my game. I really didn’t slap in college this year. It’s not something I necessarily want to do 50% of the time. I just want to have it in my back pocket so I have another way of getting on base. And work on stealing more bases and seeing live pitching.”

A break from softball

In August, the entire Goelz family plans to converge in Sugar Mountain for a couple of weeks.

It will give T.J. a chance to recharge his batteries after a long but successful and eventful year of softball.

Avery will take a break from playing games, but not much else.

“I really don’t think I can take a break mentally,’ she said. “I kind of have to keep going to keep myself where I am.”

Dennis Maffezzoli is the deputy sports editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and chief reporter for Sarasota Herald-Tribune and HTpreps covering Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties. Support local journalism by subscribing. 

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Whirlwind softball tour for the Goelz family