LIVE OAK - After the mid-week marathon in Alachua Wednesday night, it came down to a tie in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Clay Blue Devils were grinding it out against the host Suwannee Bulldogs. When these two teams faced one another April 23rd, the Bulldogs had the Blue Devils number as they won 14-2.

“We knew coming in this would be a tough game. We lost to them 14-2. They are year in and year out state playoffs team,” said Clay Head Coach Josh Persinger. “Brucey (Bulldogs Head Coach Justin Bruce) does a really good job. He believes this is the be

The Bulldogs could no better than a single run in the bottom of the third as the stout Clay defense held inning after inning with multiple runners on. The Clay offense that broke through Wednesday for 12 runs, were getting a dose of lights out defense from the Bulldogs right up to the fifth inning. Finally, the Blue Devils evened things to tie 1-1 with a Brandon Adams RBI single that scored Aidan Hampton.

After another scoreless inning, in the top of the seventh, the Clay bats went cold. Not a problem as this crew is used to overtime games. Just stop the Bulldogs and they live another round. After getting an out, the Bulldogs got one runner on with Suwannee’s Carston Palmer dinking a single to left field. Clay Pitcher Jayden Long struck out the next batter as Palmer stole second to get into scoring position with two outs. Bulldog’s Mathew Gill swung and missed for strike one. On the next pitch, Gill connected for a line drive to left field. Alec Burke made the play in left field as Palmer rounded third. Just like the play Wednesday night in bottom of the seventh to get the game into extra innings, it would be a play at the plate to settle the score. Burke hurled the ball home to make the play. But tonight, would end differently. The throw was on target. The ball would not settle in Catcher Dylan Greene’s glove. Even with the right position to block and tag the runner out, the ball came out and Palmer was safe to end the game on a walk off single RBI as Clay’s season ends in round two of the State Championship playoffs with a 2-1 road loss. Number one Suwannee will move on Tuesday night to host number two Bishop Kenny in the Region Quarter Final to try and earn a bid into the final four.

“We did everything right. As we know, it’s not as it always works,” said Persinger. “That team is well coached. That kid on the hill is a great pitcher. He beat us three times now. We didn’t win this game because they didn’t play together. We play that exact same game ten times, I bet we win 2-1, they win 2-1 five out of ten times for both of us. It just sucks being on the losing end after talking about going to states for four years. It just didn’t happen.”