TRENTON - With area high school softball kicking into high gear, Middleburg, Oakleaf and Keystone Heights have put their schedules to the test with the first two weeks of games featuring a Who's Who from last year's state runs.
In a recent trend, Middleburg coach Ashley Houston, the 2022 state champions in 5A, and one not afraid of putting her girls into the lions den, has opened with the likes of Baldwin and Trenton, going one win by walk-off grand slam from Emma Ward against Baldwin, and one loss to 1A champion Trenton High on Saturday in a game that the Houston had plenty of runners on base, but just could not get them to home plate in a 5-1 loss.
"Our goal each year is to face the best pitching that we can," said Houston. "I felt like last year, we didn't do a good job of that in the post season."
Evidence of Houston's lamentation is a double loss scenario to Gainesville High who beat the Broncos twice in post season; for the district title and in the region semifinal with sophomore flamethrower Leanna Bourdage stifling the Bronco batting lineup.
Ironically, Middleburg and Gainesville will not see each other in regular season play.
"No reason, neither of us reached out," said Houston, who will have Trenton visit Middleburg on March 10.
Houston's schedule gauntlet does not ease up any time soon with Branford, a 1A runnerup to Trenton last year in extra innings; 6-5 in eight, on the docket and East Lake High, the Broncos foes in their 2022 state championship game in Clermont to follow. East Lake is now a 6A program that lost in region finals last year.
Against Baldwin, with Middleburg behind 5-1 into the sixth inning, the Bronco bats started to create some fire with Clarida bashing a two run homer with Hagan on base from being hit with a pitch, then Mallory Ficklin doubling in Ward after a single to score the game 5-4.
In the seventh, Hagan doubled in Mika Wesley who singled prior to push the game to 7-5 with a Bennett grounder getting Pifer to home plate to 7-6 to set up the dramatic finish with Johnson walking to the load the bases for Ward's blast.
"Emma, in the fourth position in the batting lineuup, is a junior and was a designated player last year because of her power," said Houston. "We wanted to put her in a position to add to our top three hitters this year; Isabel Pifer, KK Hagan and Kerra Clarida. We knew we would need her to produce there and she did."
One of Houston's forte's in past seasons has been a fairly reliable fifth, sixth or seventh batting explosion.
"I keep joking with them that my heart can't handle waiting that long to get games under control," said Houston.
On Saturday, in a very raucous Trenton High atmosphere in a town that has Titletown on the incoming water tower, the Class 1A champion Tigers also struck first with two runs in the first inning with starting pitcher Karleigh Sanford issuing two walks before a sacrifice bunt put two across home plate.
Sanford stayed strong with two whiffs in the second inning to quiet some of the Trenton faithful, but Trenton hurler A Allaire answered with two whiffs of her own.
Middleburg got a bit loose in the fourth with walks and a passed ball putting two more runs in for the Tigers.
Middleburg looked to go big in the ensuing fourth inning with walks to Clarida and Ward and a single by Ficklin loading the bases quickly, but Allaire responded with strikeouts to squelch the scoring attempt.
With Ballinger now on the mound, an error and an RBI double off a 3/2 pitch added one more for Trenton to 5-0.
Allaire let up a bit in the fifth with two walks putting Mika Wesley and Pifer on base before Wesley stole third to set up a run scoring sacrifice fly by Hagan that almost made the left field fence.
Ballinger stayed hot on the mound to stifle any more scoring opportunities with four strikeouts to end the game.

OAKLEAF

For the Oakleaf High Knights, unbeaten at 2-0, wins over West Nassau (5-4) and Providence (11-2) followed a bruising 10-4 loss in preseason to Baker County that caused coach Heather Han to have a "chat" with her team as the Knights lost a ton of firepower to graduation.
"We just redefined purpose for practice vs. getting the job done in game," said Han, who heads to Montverde Academy for a weekend tournament Friday and Saturday. "We also have a group that will steal bases for us; Jaydyn Beall, Ava Tolbert and Lexi Fisher."
Senior pitcher Charlotte Maddox has been on fire on the mound with 11 strikeouts against Providence, a 2A region semifinalist last year, and seven whiffs against West Nassau, a 3A region semifinalist last year.
Oakleaf reknowned batting prowess has been evident led by Ava Tolbert who bashed three singles and a double against West Nassau with Maddox driving in three runs against Providence on three hits. Senior shortstop Jaydyn Beall has been a menace on base with four runs scored and two against West Nassau.
West Nassau blew up to a 4-0 lead over Oakleaf off two walks and back to back doubles, but the Knights regrouped with Maddox whiffing three in the fourth before Tolbert's two RBI double in the fifth scored Beall and Lexi Fisher, then Maddox singled in Tolbert to put three on the board for Oakleaf.
Beall stole three hits with pop out stabs to set up a dramatic finish with Beall doubling and Fisher singling to set up the gamewinning runs off a single by Avery Garcia that had an errant throw at second base for the final 5-4 score.

KEYSTONE HEIGHTS

In Keystone Heights on Friday, the Lady Indians opened with 4A runnerup Baker County in town on a cold, blustery night and battled to a 4-4 tie into the seventh inning that got a run scoring double by the Wildcats for a 5-4 win.
Keystone Heights outhit the Wildcats 8-7 with Indians pitcher Kadence Massey and Wildcat pitcher Rylee Walker both striking out five. Massey and Bailey Amato both doubled in the sixth with Chloe Still's RBI single tying the game to set up the dramatic seventh inning. Baker County also double doubled to score the gamewinner.
Taylor Buchanan got a walk in the bottom of the seventh with two outs to hype up the drama one more notch, but Amato grounded out to end the game.
Keystone Heights next travels to Tocoi Creek on Tuesday, February 25, then unbeaten (3-0) Newberry on Thursday, February 27 before hosting Providence, a 2A region semifinalist, on Friday. Newberry was region quarterfinal loss to eventual state champion Trenton last year.

Around the county, Orange Park is 0-3 with a slugfest 17-13 loss to Menendez on Friday despite 10 hits by the Lady Raiders led by three RBIs from Addison Toledo and two RBIs by Regan Barnett, Avery Louque and Braylee Absher.
Clay High, 1-1, opened big with a 10-6 win over Bradford but fell 10-0 to Baldwin who has made the rounds around local teams. Brooke Hamilton had a double and two singles against Bradford to lead the Blue Devils.
Ridgeview High has their season opener a doozy with Baker County (2-0-1) visiting Tuesday, February 25. The Panthers will have junior Saige Bialek back on the mound with seniors Petyon Kirk and Kaniah Redding leading the very small roster along with junior starter Nichole Deschamps.
St. Johns Country Day School (1-1) opened with a 17-2 loss to Fleming Island, but reversed course with a 19-4 win over Parsons Christian Academy. Megan Jeffers landed to homers for the Spartans against Parsons; one an inside the parker. St. Johns also got a homer and a two run triple from Gabi Oceguera.
Fleming Island is unbeaten (2-0) with high-run games against St. Johns; 17-2, and Palatka, 14-3, with 13 hits against St. Johns and 18 hits against Palatka.
Liv Sikes bashed four hits for four runs with four RBIs against Palatka with Lauren Abrams adding three RBIs. Abrams had five RBIs against St. Johns with the Golden Eagles bashing five doubles; two by Sikes.
Fleming Island travels to Creekside and Flagler this week with Beachside visiting on Wednesday, February 26.