GREEN COVE SPRINGS - Clay High senior Merrick Rapoza took one huge swing and set the Episcopal baseball nearly to Highway 16 with teammate Cole Carnell at second base to get the Blue Devils a 3-0 win over Episcopal in the first of three "gauntlet" games for coach Josh Persinger with Bishop Kenny up next on Wednesday and St. Johns Country Day School on Friday; both at Clay High School.
"We are getting our bats alive and kicking with Merrick and Cole both coming on strong," said Persinger, now 8-2 and ranked fourth in Class 5A. "Bishop Kenny, though 1-7 right now, is a dangerous team with a great coach and we try to stay with focusing on one game at a time. St. Johns will always be dangerous and has been playing great ball. Friday should be fun."
Against Episcopal, 8-2 now and ranked 14th in Class 3A, Clay scored first with Easton McMahan bashing an RBI single with Carnell again on base.
From there, both pitchers; Rylan McMahan for Clay and Episcopal starter John McDonald kept baserunners in the dugout; 10 strikeouts for McMahan and seven for McDonald before Carnell opened with a single in the fifth followed by Rapoza's one-pitch homer over right field.
Bishop Kenny visits Green Cove Springs after a 20-9 season last year and a 4A region semifinal finish with nine graduated seniors.
St. Johns Country Day School, 8-2, the defending Class 2A champions and the very first county school to win a state baseball title, returns with a plethora of talent including pitcher Austin Strathman, and a hitting lineup featuring T.J. Sunderhaus, Hunter Rodgers, Nick Bowden and Gibby Gilliand, the walk-off hero of last year's playoff games.
The Spartans are ranked sixth in Class 2A and won a 6-5 match at Flagler Palm Coast on Tuesday with an RBI single from T.J. Sunderhaus with Hunter Rodgers on base in the sixth.
Also on Tuesday, Fleming Island softball, 4-1, put up three runs in the eighth inning to defeat Tocoi Creek 5-3 with Tocoi Creek outhitting the Golden Eagles 10-8. Fleming Island's three extra innings runs came off an RBI single by Liv Sikes and a triple from Mallory Blackwell who dominated the mound with seven strikeouts. Sikes also had two doubles.
Fleming Island hosts Ridgeview, a two in a row win streak on the line as coach Angela Agurkins has willed two wins in a row over Trinity Christian Academy on Monday (5-3) and Tuesday (11-4). Hannah Smith and Emma Lundy both scored off sixth inning singles from grounders to push the score to 5-3. Ridgeview scored three runs in the first inning behind five singles in a row; Bella Jeffers, Nichole Deschamps, Kasey Watts, Saige Bialek and Chloe Reigel.
In their 11-4 win, Ridgeview's bats ripped for 11 runs on 12 hits with eighth RBIs.
Oakleaf, 3-3, gave up four runs in the fourth to Bartram Trail to lose a 4-2 contest despite pitcher Charlotte Maddox whiffing nine batters, but Oakleaf mishandling eight balls in the field.
In baseball, the Oakleaf Knights, 5-5, scored four runs in the first two innings to cruise to a 7-5 win off 10 hits with Connor Tant getting four RBIs. Oakleaf next has Bolles (7-2, ranked seventh in 3A) in town on Thursday.
Out at West Nassau High, the Middleburg High softball team whisked a 7-6 win behind a big bat from Chloe Ballinger who had four RBIs, a 2RBI homer with Isabel Pifer and Kerra Clarida on base; Clarida with an RBI double, Pifer with an RBI single.
Middleburg came back from a three game torrid schedule with losses to Trenton (1A champ), Branford (1A runnerup to Trenton) and East Lake (4-1, 6A region finalist) before three wins; Episcopal, Cornerstone Academy and West Nassau as coach Ashley Houston has not shied from putting her team on the field with top challengers.
Oakleaf travels to Middleburg on Thursday then Providence with Trenton visiting on Monday, March 10.
Keystone Heights softball, 2-3, lost a 10-0 game to Baker County with the baseball Indians won a 14-2 game over Baker County with Andrew Wilson driving in seven runs with three hits; one a grand slam homer.