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Oakleaf, Middleburg win; Keystone Heights lose to No. 6

Monday night softball blitz

By Randy Lefko
Posted 4/18/18

MIDDLEBURG – Middleburg High’s softball team has finally gotten a bit of the bounce, as coach Karl Smeltzer might call it, as his Lady Broncos have pulled off a late season rally of wins over …

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Oakleaf, Middleburg win; Keystone Heights lose to No. 6

Monday night softball blitz


Posted

MIDDLEBURG – Middleburg High’s softball team has finally gotten a bit of the bounce, as coach Karl Smeltzer might call it, as his Lady Broncos have pulled off a late season rally of wins over area teams destined to go deep in the upcoming region playoffs.

“Don’t count us out yet,” said Smeltzer, who though sporting a less than impressive 6-14 overall season record with an even less than impressive 1-4 district 3-7A record, still is confident that the post season may be the perfect time for his team to realize how good they really are. “We have left an average of nine runners on base for most of our games. We are very talented at the basics of the game, but have had trouble getting the runners across home plate.”

Until about mid-March, when the Broncos first lost 3-0 to Clay; 1-0 to Fleming Island, 3-2 to Ridgeview and 2-0 to Columbia with all four teams at or near the top of their respective districts including Columbia in Middleburg’s district 3-7A.

“Against both Gainesville and Columbia, both highly-ranked in 7A (fourth and sixth, respectively) we were at 0-0 into the fifth and sixth innings before the bottom fell out,” said Smeltzer.

After the 2-0 loss to Columbia (18-3, 4th in 7A) on March 29, the Lady Broncos exploded with a 9-3 win over 7A-Bartram Trail (15-3, 10th in 7A) on April 5 and a 1-0 win over 7A-Nease (25th in 7A) on April 6.

“We were hitting the ball to open spots and getting people around the bases,” said Smeltzer. “We have been good on defense all year and it all came together.”

A second game with Bartram Trail did not go so well; a 10-0 loss, but the Broncos rebounded for Monday’s 4-3 win over Ridgeview after posting an early 4-0 lead.

Middleburg opened the Ridgeview game with a heads up out at second base from shortstop Jaden Marsh on a steal before getting in the batter’s box and filling the bases on a double from Emily Bach to set up a scoring walk to Felicity Muncy.

Up 1-0, the Broncos struck again in the second with a walk, singles for Marsh and Bach and bases loaded three times off walks from Ridgeview pitcher Milani Sablan before a run scoring single by Muncy put the Broncos up 4-0.

Ridgeview scored its three runs in the seventh inning off a two run triple from Alyssa Adams with one out and a run scoring flyout.

Across the county, at Clay High, the Oakleaf High Lady Knights, fresh off wins over Providence (9-0), West Nassau (4-3) and Trinity Christian (8-5) to sport a 20-2 record after a spectacular championship win at the Kissimmee Klassic, powered through a 2-0 win over Clay with Cambria Arturo and Madisyn Davis sharing the pitching against the Blue Devils. Both teams opened with bombs in their first at bats; one from Oakleaf’s Katie Kistler, who blasted to the centerfield fence, but was nailed at third by a great throw from Clay centerfielder Charlotte DeNapoli; the other a three-bagger from Clay’s Kaitlyn Kumpf that got past Oakleaf right fielder Jasmine Lamug on a bounce. Neither team would score off the opening salvos and the game became a tense battle of pitching and fast-thinking infield plays; one a snap grab by Clay pitcher Morgan Crutcher on a hard liner from Kistler that ended with an out at first base; the other a double play by Davis who snagged a DeNapoli line drive in the air off the mound and threw Kumpf out at first base to end the sixth inning.

Oakleaf scored on an RBI single from Angela Agurkis in the fourth and a Koskey double in the fifth inning.

For Keystone Heights (15-7, 7th in 5A), who faced off in 7A-Gainesville (17-4, sixth ranked in Class 7A, 15th in all Florida) against the Hurricanes who scored two runs in the first inning to put the Lady Indians in need of a bag of runs for the win. Fifteen strikeouts from Gainesville pitcher Alissa Humphrey was enough to stifle the Lady Indians bats for the night.