ORANGE PARK - Oakleaf High senior pitcher Chris Mauloni pitched for five strikeouts in five innings and hit an RBI fly ball to power the Knights to a 3-1 win over district 2-8A rival Fleming Island High on Friday.

The Knights came out of the dugout with bats on fire right away as they put a couple early runs on the board that Fleming Island never seemed to rebound from.

In the first inning, Fleming Island couldn’t do anything with the pitching of Mauloni, who is a verbal commit to Jacksonville University.

The win puts Oakleaf (13-2) and Fletcher (13-4) at the top of district 2-8A, both at 4-1 in district play, with Atlantic Coast and Fleming Island both with two district losses. Oakleaf’s lone loss was to Atlantic Coast (8-4 on March 14) while the Knights defeated Fletcher 10-5 on March 9. Atlantic Coast and Fleming Island play on March 11 (at Fleming Island, 4:30 p.m.).

When it was the Knight’s turn at bat, with Tristan Adams already on, Mauloni hit a deep sacrifice fly to right field that scored the Knights first run, bringing Adams home. After getting on base, Justin Wager would get brought around with an RBI from Cornell Daniels.

At the end of the inning, the Knights left runners at second and third.

With points on the board, Oakleaf appeared to relax a little, then have difficulty getting anything going.

“I think we struggled a little bit in the beginning,” said Oakleaf coach Chris Lannom. “The pitcher, (Billy) Schopp, for Fleming Island, he’s a really good pitcher. He has four good pitches and he throws them really, really well. He settled down about the third inning and he became the Schopp of normal. I don’t think he had, really, the gas he usually has, today.”

In the top of the second, Fleming Island looked poised to even the score or go ahead as they loaded up the bases with two outs. With a dribbler back to the pitcher, the ball was thrown to home plate for the easy out, retiring the inning without a Golden Eagle score.

In the fourth inning, after Fleming went three up, three out, the Knight’s Vinny Caldas drove the ball between the short stop and third base for a single. Dustin Espinosa was sent in to pinch run for Caldas. Next up, Bruce Hube used the same spot to get Knight’s runners on first and second. Kobe Branch took charge next with a shot past the shortstop to bring Espinosa around for Oakleaf’s final score of the game.

In the fifth inning, Fleming Island looked like they were getting things moving as the leadoff batter; Collier Summers was hit with the pitch. Summers made his way to second base. When Oakleaf tried to throw back to first base to pick off the runner, the ball flew over the first baseman. Summers took off for third.

With a changeup pitch that Oakleaf catcher Vinny Caldas couldn’t get a handle on, Summers took off for home. Caldas tried to make a play when he threw back to Mauloni who seemed to have the play. Mauloni couldn’t hold on and Summers scored the lone run for Fleming Island as the other runners could never find the hits to bring them home.

Concerning the exchange issues Caldas was having with Mauloni, Lannom said “What happens is sometimes Chris gets going, Chris is throwing 86, 87, 88 and he gets loose, he gets real loose and the ball starts running about six or seven inches. Sometimes it will sweep it across if his mechanics aren’t right so it’s hard to stick on there. Then a couple times, it did get crossed up.”

Fleming saw their last at-bats go strikeout, pop-out, and strikeout to end the game.

Oakleaf heads to Bradford, West Nassau, and comes back home for a matchup against Middleburg. Fleming Island will be home versus Orange Park before heading over to Creekside later in the week.