MIDDLEBURG - Spring Break is over and the second half of baseball, softball and flag football revved up on Tuesday, March 25 as area teams had to shake off the extra pounds of a week off to ready themselves for a final week or two of regular season play and the oncoming district, region, state runs that are imminent.
In two of the highest hyped games in the area, softball had No. 2 Middleburg losing, but gaming a few near miss plays, to No. 15 Class 7A Creekside with a 2-2 tie into the fifth inning breaking with the Knights scoring solo runs in the sixth and sevenths for the win.
Out at Baker County (9-2-1, 4th ranked 4A), the Oakleaf High Knights battled to a 3-2 game with neither team scoring past the third inning thanks to tough pitching on both sides; Oakleaf's Charlotte Maddox with six Ks and Baker County getting six Ks with two pitchers. Oakleaf was victimized again by four errors in the field, something coach Heather Han has addressed throughout the season.
For Middleburg, starter Chloe Ballinger held strong to a 2-1 Bronco lead in the third off fast feet by Middleburg trackster double athlete Mika Wesley who outran a bunt, then looked like a 400 meter runner around the diamond to home plate on a sacrifice fly from Bayleigh Girgis deep to centerfield.
A double by Kerra Clarida after a walk to KK Hagan got the Broncos the lead with Clarida eventually tagged out at third.
Creekside would tie on Ballinger with a walk and single with senior Lily Bennett coming in on the next dugout exchange and delivering six fiery strikeouts in her three innings, but getting rocked by errors to give Creekside back the lead.
Creekside pitcher Carly Dall, six strikeouts, was masterful with a floating changeup pitch that seemed to befuddle the Bronco bats and also fire up the Creekside batting lineup. In the sixth, Bennett got hit with a single and double to the final 4-2 score.
Middleburg's tortuous schedule gets no break with the Broncos traveling to Baker County on Friday, March 28 and Fletcher visiting on Monday, March 31.
Oakleaf, now 6-6, gets Fleming Island on Thursday, March 27, then travels to Kissimmee for the ultra-tough Kissimmee Klassic Tournament only to face super power Bartow, 6th in 6A, 10-3-0, in their round one game on April 3.
Fleming Island, with a big bat from Emma Massey; homer and double, knocked out Bishop Kenny 11-4 to stop a three game skid that included one run losses to Creekside, No. 15 7A (8-2), 12-11, and No. 10 7A Atlantic Coast (11-1), 1-0.
Fleming Island's batting lineup caught fire early and stayed ignited with 13 hits with runs in all by the final two innings; three in the fourth and fifth stanzas.
Fleming Island has their own gauntlet coming with Oakleaf, Bishop Snyder (9-2), Tocoi Creek and University Christian coming next week and Ponte Vedra on the horizon on Monday, March 7.
Tocoi Creek visited Ridgeview on Tuesday and the Jekyll Hyde Panthers had the game in hand with a 4-2 lead into the sixth with Tocoi Creek tying and taking the one run game, 5-4, in the seventh inning. The Panthers had the game on the hot seat in the seventh with a walk to Nicole Deschamps, a Saige Bialek double and a walk to KK Watts putting the winning run in play, but Deschamps got tagged at home off a grounder and the game ended with a fly ball.
Ridgeview coach Angela Agurkis' life gets no easier with a Thursday road trip to Baker County and a Monday road trip to Bishop Snyder.
At Keystone Heights, the Lady Indians fell to 4-6 on their rugged schedule with a 5-1 loss to Fort White putting a third straight loss on the Indians though losses were to Middleburg, Ponte Vedra and Fort White.
Up next for coach Jessica Marquart is Oakleaf, Fleming Island and Santa Fe (11-1, 28th in Florida, 7th in 3A).
Clay improved to 8-4 with a 12-1 win over Orange Park. The Clay batting lineup exploded with three doubles and five triples on the night; one by Lauren Harris with bases loaded in the sixth followed by a two run three bagger by Hailey Hackett.
In baseball, Clay exorcized two losses in Tampa to two No. 1 teams by exacting a bit of bat therapy on a scrappy Middleburg team to win a 9-4 game. Middleburg scored the first run in the third after two scoreless innings, but Clay answered with four in their next at bats, a homer by Merrick Rapoza and a two run double from Peyton McCrae, and three after that to go up 7-1, but the fiesty Broncos rocked the sixth with three runs to make the game interesting; 7-4. Middleburg got three singles and a double from Johnny De Antonis in that inning.
Fleming Island, 5-12, lost a 10-2 game to Beachside with Bartram Trail and Deland next up.

Ridgeview, 5-9, let a 2-1 lead over Sandalwood evaporate with three runs in the seventh inning to lose 4-2.  Waylon Smith was stellar on the mound with nine strikeouts for Ridgeview who have road trips to Nease and Eagle's View this week.
Orange Park snapped a five game losing streak; to the likes of Ponte Vedra and Fletcher, with a 10-2 win over ED White. The Raiders improve to 6-12 with a tough week with Beachside, First Coast and Stanton on the agenda.
Keystone Heights keeps quietly winning games with a 13-5 win over Paxon after a 10-0 shutout of Orange Park to go to 12-4 with Middleburg visiting on Thursday, March 27.
St. Johns Country Day School, 11-6 after a 9-2 drubbing of then No. 1 Neumann High of Naples, snapped their own four game skid with the Neumann win and will travel to Oakleaf on Wednesday, March 26 with another road game to Providence on Friday, March 28.
Oakleaf got a boost to start their playoff preparations with an 11-0 win over Middleburg with coach Matt Carter going big for the next two weeks with St. Johns Country Day School (3rd in 1A), Ponte Vedra (10-6, 19th in 5A), Newberry (7-4), Trinity Christian Academy (11-3, 2nd in 2A) and North Oconee of Georgia (15-4, 7th in 4A) on tap.
In flag football, Ridgeview scored early to go up 14-0 on Middleburg, 14-7 at the half, then won a 28-13 game to improve to 3-3. Wide receiver Nacoya Blocton turned a 35 yard pass play in the first quarter to the Middleburg four yard line before quarterback Bella Brown hit D'Asia Torrence with a scoring pass. Ridgeview's second score came on a zigzag run from running back Taniya Booker from six yards out.
Middleburg scored in the first half after quarterback Rachel Hansen mixed up a series of passes to wide out Payton Morgan before hitting center Kelsey Harrelson with a key first down pass, then a score and PAT pass to put the half at 14-7.
Clay stayed unbeaten at 7-0 with a 19-0 win over Oakleaf (2-4) with the Blue Devils traveling to Columbia on Friday, March 28, then heading to Fleming Island on April 1 for a showdown matchup against the 6-1 Golden Eagles. Fleming Island plays their first game after Spring Break on Thursday at ED White (6-2).
Keystone Heights, 5-5, has road games with Palatka, Bradford (6-0) and Columbia this week.
Orange Park, 0-7, returns to action against Bishop Snyder (4-2) on Thursday, March 27.