FLEMING ISLAND - When Fleming Island High baseball coach Marty Lanoux was asked what it was like to watch is son, senior pitcher Caleb Lanoux, be a warrior on the mound, Lanoux’s answer was silence.

A teary-eyed silence, but a father’s best answer.

Fleming Island, riding a baseball peak of five straight playoff wins; a district semi-final, a district final and two region playoff games; one over the defending Class 8A champions and one over the team that also beat the defending champs for their district title, had its “unlikely” season come to a screeching halt Tuesday night in a 2-0 ninth inning loss to Strawberry Crest High in the region 1-8A championship game under the lights of Fleming Island High School’s new baseball lights.

As Lanoux powered through eight innings of strategic pitching with the help of shortstop Noah McCollum who performed his own highlight reel in the deep six hole, Fleming Island stood in an eerily similar scenario as last week’s region semifinal win against Tallahassee Chiles; won 7-3 by the Golden Eagles.

At 0-0 as the game entered the top of the ninth, Strawberry Crest got a two run double off the centerfield fence off a war-weary Lanoux to grab the 2-0 lead that would carry to the end of the game.

Note: A detailed report will be in next week’s Clay Today sports pages.