ORANGE PARK – Ridgeview High baseball has had a topsy turvy ride under the tutelage of coach John Sgromolo with a district 4-6A title last year and all the trappings that come from being a defending champion the following year.

So far, Sgromolo and his Panther team have responded to the challenge to the tune of a 9-4 district win over Ponte Vedra High on Friday, one of the nemesis to both Ridgeview and also to the previous top dog in the district, Clay High School.

In the recent Clay High Final Four runs, Ponte Vedra has stuck its nose in the Blue Devil plans and been a thorn in the side of former coach Rob Thompson, now an assistant coach with daughter Christina at Oakleaf High School.

On Wed., April 12 and again on Thurs., April 13, the rivalry could reach a fever pitch in Clay County as both teams will be battling for the coveted top spot in district 4-6A.

Ridgeview’s ride, with a record of 13-3 and a 5-1 district slate, comes by way of a two-game series with those pesky Sharks who beat Ridgeview 5-0 in game one on April 6.

Ridgeview came back the following day at home with a hard-fought 9-4 win the next day with senior Tyler Robison blasting for five runs batted in with a two run homer and a smattering of hits in the late innings.

“After a tough loss vs a very good pitcher on Thursday night, I am proud of the grit and the fight our team showed to bounce back and even the series on Friday,” said Sgromolo about the Ponte Vedra series. “We are in a very tough district and to make a deep playoff run, you are going to have to have that kind of grit and resiliency, and I’m proud of them for that.”

Clay High comes in with two crushing blowouts of Pedro Menendez High; 10-2 and 18-0 on April 5 and April 6 and some momentum at the plate, but not against one of the two top teams in the districts.

In the first Ponte Vedra game, Ridgeview gave up three first inning runs to force a fight to come back that never happened as the Sharks defense was up to that task.

In the second game, Ponte Vedra smacked around pitcher Nick Frascello early with a two run homer in the third scoring the game 2-1.

“It is tough to pinpoint just a few guys who have been helping this season, Nick Frascello has been stellar on the mound, he is currently 5-0, was leading the city in pitching for a few weeks,” said Sgromolo. “Robison has done well as a starter as well and has had some power with the bat as of late, he has 17 RBI in 16 games.”

Ridgeview returned fire with Robison’s blast in the bottom of the third coupling up with a an RBI double from Tyler Turner that put Ridgeview up 4-2. Turner put Ridgeview up in the first inning after following a Garrett Barfield single with his first RBI double of the game scoring the game 1-0.

Ridgeview took advantage of Ponte Vedra pitching woes and field errors to score two more to put the game at 6-4 into the fifth inning.

In the fifth, walks to T.J. Oliveira and Barfield set up a two-RBI single by Robison that put the game at 8-3. A Duas single scored the final Panther run.

Jones entered to pitch and got two seventh inning strikeouts to end the game.