OAKLEAF– Oakleaf High’s reputation of power softball nearly got halted by a pitcher that refused to buckle under the Lady Knight firepower, but in the end, after seven innings of grueling heavyweight punching that looked eerily similar to Chuck Wepner vs. Muhammad Ali, Oakleaf emerged with an eighth-inning squeeze bunt play to score a 3-2 district 2-8A semifinal win over Fleming Island that could very well be scored the game of the year for both teams.

“We knew the only way to beat Oakleaf was to get out ahead early and keep that lead” said Fleming Island Head Coach Jennifer Bucklew, who lost a quick 8-1 regular season game in March to Oakleaf. “Madi (Davis, Oakleaf top pitcher) is a tough pitcher. She hits her spot, she hits her changeup well, she had that tonight and we just couldn’t put anything else together after that. We told our girls they had to be creative to beat her and beat their team. We just couldn’t get a ball through and were short of a home run by two feet.”

Against Fleming Island, Oakleaf’s Katie Kistler opened the scoring with a single and two stolen bases that put her on third before a wild pitch from freshman pitcher Morgan Kendrick put the first run on the scoreboard.

In the second inning, Fleming Island punched back with Tiara Peters singling off Davis and Morgan Grimm walking to set up a near-catastrophic deep fly ball from Halle Corless that looked like it would make the Oakleaf High School parking lot. Instead of a three run homer, Corless home plated Peters and Grimm and squelched the Knights’ faithful who found themselves down 2-1.

From there, the match became a slugfest with Kendrick taking the best batters in the state to task with her versatility on the mound.

“That kid threw great tonight,” said Oakleaf coach Christina Thompson. “The first time we faced her, we had some things figured out. Her ball was moving way better tonight and the rise ball was working exceptionally well. She got us to chase and I was very impressed with her tonight.”

Oakleaf could not get any air off Kendrick’s pitches, but, in the sixth, Angela Agurkis, the Knights’ power hitter softball put down a squeeze bunt that got Rebecca Koskey across home plate for a 2-2 score.

“When coach gave me the sign, I thought I have to get this done. I haven’t been producing hitting so if I need to bunt, I need to bunt and lay it down; there is no stopping me on that one. As soon as I put it down, the energy came up and we knew there was no stopping us now” said catcher Angela Agurkis. “We’re going to come back and win this thing.”

After the seventh inning passed with no fanfare, Koskey teamed up with Kistler on base with a double and a stolen third base that set up an unlikely second squeeze bunt situation. Thompson signaled and Koskey pulled the trigger.

“I’ll give it to them; they find a way to dig deep” said Thompson. “Even when we’re down, you get nervous, but you always have that inner hope, that feel that they are going to pull it off and that’s what they did tonight.”

By the way, Oakleaf pounded Atlantic Coast 10-0 in the championship game.

“I think tonight we just came out firing on all cylinders,” said Thompson, who beat Atlantic Coast in the district final last year, then dimed them 10-0 in the region semifinal. “I’ve been on them all year that they haven’t had all three elements together and how dangerous they can be if they can figure that out. Tonight, I was proud of them because we had pitching, we had defense and we had hitting. All year we only had two of the three at any one time. This game, we came out on all levels tonight.”

Oakleaf (26-2) enters the region 1-8A playoffs with Tallahassee Lincoln (17-7) on Wed., May 2 at 7 p.m. Atlantic Coast (11-13) travels to Tallahassee Chiles (21-3), the district 1-8A champion over Lincoln.