ORANGE PARK – Both coaches smiled coyly throughout the game as both were one of the more successful tandems in county softball history as both have been the Clay High School dugout for nearly a decade, but, in the end, Clay High’s Matt Lewis got the upper hand on Ridgeview High’s Roger Harvey in an 8-5 district 4-6A win Fridayafternoon in softball action at Ridgeview High School.

“It was awesome,” said Lewis. “It is going to be a fun rivalry. The district tournament is going to be even more pressure packed.”

Ridgeview must double up to face Ponte Vedra on April 3 in another key district matchup before the district tournament begins next week.

“The caliber of fight has been showing itself more and more so yeah, at any moment we can be a contender,” said Harvey, who had to rebound for a Mon., April 3 matchup with district power Ponte Vedra on Mon., April 3. “I pretty well know what he’s (Lewis) thinking and he always uses the same attack plan.”

With sterling defensive play on both sides, the game started out in Harvey’s favor with the Lady Panthers opening the first inning with a 3-0 lead off a two run triple from Sara Adams that scored teammates Kelsey Solomon and Chloe Chambers who reached on a walk and an throwing error to first.

Ridgeview scored their first run, prior to the Adams blast, off an RBI single from Kirsten Sutherland as Clay pitcher Morgan Dutcher was victimized by an emotionally charged Ridgeview lineup.

With Lewis imploring his team to just settle down and play Clay High softball, the Lady Blue Devils got one run back in the ensuing inning off a walk, a single to Haley Stone and a sacrifice bunt from Delaney Anfinson.

A hard hit from Morgan Silvis to Adams at shortstop was mishandled at home plate to score the Blue Devils’ first run.

From there, Dutcher shut down the Panther bat attack in the Panthers’ next at bat as momentum was slowly shifting south.

In their next at-bats, Clay went after Ridgeview pitcher Sarah Anderson with a collection of sharp singles and bunts that pushed Kaitlyn Kumpf and Sydney Lewis to positions at second and third before a bunt from Allison Byrd and a 2RBI single from Marianne McDonald scored the game 4-3 for Clay.

With the game looking to start getting out of hand, Ridgeview third baseman Kelsey Solomon slapped down a wicked hit from Anfinson and recovered fast enough to throw her out to end the inning.

Ridgeview responded to the slight letdown on defense to tie the game in the ensuing inning with Adams again the ringleader with an RBI double scoring the game 4-4 with Solomon scoring from third after a superb bunt put her on the basepaths. Chambers chopped a grounder to Clay second baseman Allison Byrd that got Solomon to third for a possible go-ahead situation, but Chambers was nailed at second base on a steal attempt by Kumpf to ignite the Clay dugout.

With the game tied 4-4, both pitchers and both defenses hunkered in with Adams snuffing three consecutive grounders and Anderson whiffing two batters to keep the intensity at a high level in both dugouts.

In the fifth, Clay struck with singles to Charlotte DeNapoli and McDonald, but a sprinting one-handed snag in centerfield by Chambers kept both baserunners on the field.

Dutcher kept the Panthers batting lineup at bay as she seemed to be finding her zone from the mound with a strikeout to Anderson and two grounders.

Clay broke the ice in the sixth with a go-ahead run off Anderson hitting Silvis and Clay’s Shanley Miller singling putting baserunners in play before a Kumpf grounder to Adams was thrown into the Ridgeview dugout with both runners on the run.

After a lengthy discussion on where the two runners were when the ball was determined dead in the dugout, Clay got awarded a run and Kumpf at third base. Lewis grounded to out to end the inning.

“We could have used a little better luck from the officials,” said Harvey.

Ridgeview again responded with a tying run with Sutherland bombing a triple to the left field fence and scoring off a Chambers’ RBI single to tie the game 5-5.

In the critical seventh inning, Clay exploded with singles from DeNapoli and Byrd setting up a sacrifice bunt from McDonald before Stone blooped an RBI single over second base. A great play on a high flyball right in front of home plate by Anderson nearly snuffed the Clay threat, but Silvis dropped a two-run single in centerfield on Anderson’s next pitch to score the game 8-5.

Dutcher dug in with a strikeout to Becca Medrano, a flyout to Anderson before McDonald made a stab at a hard grounder by Chambers to end the game.