PONTE VEDRA – On the road to close out the two-game series against district 4-6A opponent Ponte Vedra High, the Clay Blue Devils already locked up the number one seed heading into the playoffs with a 4-1 home win over the Sharks the previous night, so what was left?

“We locked it up last night so this was, I won’t say a trap game, but it gave them that edge. You have to tell your guys hey- it’s all about that one seed, it’s about going undefeated” said Clay coach Josh Persinger, after Thursday’s win. “It’s real easy to lose focus. We’re rolling and doing things right, so I didn’t want to do anything to take away from that.”

Despite a Shark’s three run rally in the top of the sixth, the Blue Devil bats were hot as the team racked up eight runs to filet the Sharks 8-4, setting the team up to complete the last week of regular season play knowing they go into the post season undefeated.

After a game-opening single by Kevin Jackson got things started off right, Clay moved quickly to 3-1 lead with a handful of infield hits that, combined with errant pitching by the Sharks, put Blue Devils baserunners in position. Doubles by Nick Barrie and Josh Lemen highlighted the scoring barrage with Chase Holman getting an RBI single.

Barrie doubled again in the fourth for another Clay run with Holman’s basespeed on a grounder causing a throwing error and another run as Clay zoomed to a 7-1 lead.

“I told our guys; don’t give them any light, don’t let up,” said Persinger. “You come out here and lose, or let them come back in it, then you let them know that they can beat you. Don’t ever let anyone know that they can beat you.”

Persinger was well aware of the recent playoff history between Clay and Ponte Vedra with both making deep state runs in the past five years through each other’s paths. Clay went to the region finals last year despite Ponte Vedra being the district 4-6A champion.

In 2016, Ridgeview beat Clay for the district title. In 2014, Clay, the district 4-5A champion over Ponte Vedra, beat Ponte Vedra in 5A region semifinals en route to a 5A title game loss to Tampa Jesuit. In 2013, Ponte Vedra was the 5A champion while Clay, in district 5-5A, lost to Creekside in the district title game and the region semifinals.

“There is an opportunity, that if we take care of business against the winner on Menendez and Orange Park, and they end up beating Ridgeview, that we’ll see them (The Sharks) again,” said Persinger. “They have three-four big arms so they’re not a bad team.”

In the top of the sixth, Connor Solomon hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Eric Predmore who was courtesy running for relief pitcher Tyler Spence. Ponte Vedra made things interesting in the bottom of the sixth as they got things going with one out to bring a few more runs around. Clay quickly adjusted and stopped the bleeding after three runs where the game score would eventually end, 8-4.

Connor Solomon was hot on the mound for 5-1/3 innings with nine strikeouts, three walks, 91 pitches with 60 strikes.

“The change-up was good, the curveball was working pretty well tonight, the fastball obviously was there as I was getting strikes with it, so it was real easy to set as my second pitch” said Solomon on his efforts on the hill tonight. “I wish I could have gone the whole game, but sometimes you just have to come out and let other pitchers do some work.”

Clay wraps up regular season play this week with Senior night against Paxon, then heads into playoffs.