Blue Devils lose to
Mosley 3-0 in region final

PANAMA CITY BEACH - Clay High baseball has run the gauntlet of baseball with success from scrappy baserunning and tough defense and the two identities emerged briefly, but not successfully as the Blue Devils fell 3-0 to top-ranked Mosley High of Lynn Haven in the region 1-6A championship baseball game played Thursday in Panama City Beach.
“I can’t say enough about the effort and passion that these guys played with all season,” said Clay coach Josh Persinger, who finishes at 18-11. “We just didn’t get runs across the plate like we have.”
Clay’s region playoff runs production has been impressive with back-to-back 13 run winning efforts in the region quarters and semis; 13-4 over Stanton and 13-2 over Paxon, but the Mosley defense was stifling on Thursday night.
“Their second baseman was making some great plays and they got to some long hits we had in the outfield,” said Persinger. “They are a legit state contender each year and we were hoping they would look past us.”
Clay’s opening inning amidst the Mosley favorite crowd put out the effort the Blue Devils were about to put as as batter Tyler Spence outsprinted a misplayed strike three to put a baserunner in play of the Blue Devils.
“You always think about the opening play in big games like this and that was just good hustle,” said Persinger.
Spence stayed at first with a flyout to Josh Lemen.
Mosley must have read the same playbook in their ups at bat as the Dolphin batting challenged Clay pitcher Austin Burke and the Blue Devil infielders with hard grounders getting two runners to second base, but Clay left fielder Ken Burke took on a grounder deep in his territory and threw a rocket to home plate to nail a Mosley scoring effort to squash run potential for the inning and send Clay into the dugout with renewed energy.
“That was a momentum changer,” said Persinger.
Clay opened with Connor Solomon slashing a line drive to centerfield to ignite a Clay offensive, but a superb bunt by Chase Holman was well-played at first base and a flyout by Burke was tracked down by Mosley’s centerfielder who got the ball back to second base to out
Solomon as well and end the inning.
Mosley struck first in the bottom of the fourth with a solo homer and looked to add runs with a single to follow that moved to third base off a bunt and a deep right field hit, but Burke and Lemen combined for a crafty pickoff play at third to put the baserunner back in the dugout. Holman caught a foul fly ball to end the inning with Clay seemingly unscathed by the early homer.
Clay’s bats went dead in the ensuing inning with strikeouts to Burke and Burke and a flyout to Andy Yarbrough.
Mosley entered the bottom of the second intent on flicking away the pesky Blue Devils’ who seemed to be hanging on against the three time Final Four squad; twice state runnerups 2015-2016, who were a bit stymied at the Blue Devil backbone to be down by just 1-0 after three innings.
A hard single to centerfield opened the inning with Austin Burke on the mound with a misplayed pickoff attempt putting the runner on third base. A walk and a hit batter loaded the bases and got Persinger in a conference call at the mound.
A deep fly ball scored one run and a fielder’s choice grounder to Lemen allowed a second run for the inning before Austin Burke knocked down a wicked line drive headed to centerfield to leave baserunners at first and third.
The defensive stand was followed by Cole Escher smashing a single over second base and Spence drawing a walk as Clay looked to retaliate. A walk to Holman off a three balls/two strike count loaded the bases and put Clay fans on the edge of their seats, but Kevin Jackson got robbed of the hero monicker on a great stab at second base on a hard hit grounder that became the final out.

Yarbrough replaced Burke on the mound and got three Mosley batters quickly back in the dugout, but Clay had the same result in their at bat.
In the top of the sixth, Clay got some life on the bases with Lemen reaching on an error, but Solomon struck out swinging.

Yarbrough got hit with a single in the bottom of the sixth as Mosley was needing more insurance against the explosive Clay bats and got a single to second base but Blue Devil centerfielder Jacob Owens stole a long flyball near the fence to end the effort and put Clay at bat with a final momentum surge.
Designated hitter Micheal Styron nearly silenced the now-loud Mosley fans with a deep, deep left field fly ball that seemed destined to start a Clay comeback attempt, but the Mosley left fielder track the ball down just outside the foul line in the deepest corner of left field.
Clay ended the inning with a strikeout and chopped groundout.