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Sophomore Jaclyn Traina leads the Naples High softball team to the 4A state championship on Friday night against South Lake High School. Watch »

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PLANT CITY — For Naples High, the softball season could end a little bit like football season.

With a state championship, that is.

The Golden Eagles beat Groveland-South Lake 6-3 on Friday night at Plant City Stadium in the Class 4A state semifinals, earning a chance to win their first state championship since 2001.

Ironically, that’s the same year the football team had last won a state championship before this year’s win in Class 3A.

The 4A state softball championship is Saturday at 1 p.m. at Plant City Stadium against Pembroke Pines Charter, which defeated Glen St. Mary - Baker County 12-1 on Friday afternoon.

Rivals.com ranked Pembroke Pines No. 1 in this week’s national softball poll. The Golden Eagles are No. 25.

As she has all season, sophomore pitcher Jaclyn Traina anchored Naples’ drive to victory on Friday afternoon. She had 13 strikeouts in seven innings, including three straight in the second inning and four straight from the end of the fifth to the beginning of the sixth.

She said she was a little sore before Friday’s game, so her teammates massaged her arm in the dugout.

“It really helped,” said the precocious sophomore, smiling. “I could go to any of my pitches today.”

South Lake pitcher Shaina Dent didn’t enjoy that fact.

“We heard all about her amazing rise ball, and then she comes in and throws drop balls and was just as effective,” Dent said of Traina. “To be honest, I hadn’t seen that (the drop curve) all year.”

Dent was throwing several pitches, too, but Naples found a way to get its bats on the ball at crucial times. The Golden Eagles built a 3-0 lead in the third inning after singles from Katie Raile, Ryan Iamurri, Traina and senior Erin Beal.

South Lake answered with Ari Goodwin’s run in the bottom of the fourth, but Naples scored two more in the fifth — off a two-RBI single from Ragan Ball.

The Golden Eagles added one more in the sixth off a long, looping fly to right field also from Iamurri. Remarkably, it was her first game of the season. She tore her ACL in a soccer game last November and wasn’t supposed to be cleared to play softball until May 27.

“I talked my doctor into letting me out two weeks early,” she said afterward, smiling.

“We juggled it a little,” added her dad — and her coach — Robert Iamurri.

This is Iamurri’s 23rd year coaching at Naples, and he has 645 wins and 11 state championships to his credit. Last year’s team was ranked second nationally but fell in the region finals to eventual champion Lake Wales.

What’s unique about this year’s team?

“We kind of juggled our lineup for a while,” Iamurri said. “It took us a while to figure out what players we can use to get base hits and what players we can use to move people up. But now it just feels like everyone’s filling in their role and doing what it takes to win.”