MIDDLEBURG - Middleburg High batter Mallory Ficklin hit a sixth-inning, three-run triple in support of Cloey Ballinger’s no-hitter as host Middleburg rallied late to defeat Milton 5-1 in a Region 1-5A quarterfinal on May 8.
“We trust all our pitchers, but right now Cloey is the one we have the most confidence in,” Middleburg head coach Ashley Houston said of her sophomore right-hander. “She is mostly curve and change-up, but she does have a good rise ball, and she was really mixing it up well.”
The Broncos will travel to Palm Coast to take on Matanzas in the regional semifinal on May 13. Ironically, Matanzas is the top seed in region 1-5A thus hosting the game, but Middleburg is ranked second to Niceville in Class 5A with Matanzas fifth. Matanzas holds a dismal 5.8 strength of schedule rating while Middleburg is at 16.3, second in Class 5A to St. Thomas Aquinas at 20.0. Aguinas is 14-12 and ranked fourth in 5A and also in their region 4-5A semifinal against Pembroke Pines Charter.
Matanzas, 25-1 and the No. 2 seed in region 1-5A and fifth in Class 5A, survived a tense 1-0 region quarterfinal win over Ponte Vedra, the seventh seed, to advance. Matanzas defeated Ponte Vedra 12-1 in their district 4-5A championship game just a week prior. In that 12-1 game, Matanzas battered Ponte Vedra with a 13 hit barrage including a homer from Juliet Fogel who accounted for six runs batted in on the night.
The winner of the Middleburg vs. Matanzas game will advance to the region final on May 15 to play the winner of No. 1 Niceville (19-6) and No. 4 Chiles (20-3).
In the 1-0 win, Matanzas got a 17-strikeout performance from pitcher Leah Stevens with Matanzas' lone run coming off a fourth inning RBI double after a Fogel single and a sacrifice bunt had Fogel at second base.
Ponte Vedra pitcher T Scribner had just three strikeouts, but the Sharks defense held the Matanzas lineup to minimal movement on base. Matanzas had a second and third base scenario in the fifth, but Scribner got two flyballs and, in the sixth, two smartly played ground balls with bases loaded to keep Matanzas away from home plate.
Against Milton, Ballinger, a sophomore who staved off a possible Fleming Island High upset in the district championship game won by Middleburg 5-4, was masterful, needing just 78 pitches to go the distance while striking out eight and walking two. After Milton’s Ashlyn Sutton reached base on an error in the first inning, Ballinger set down 18 Panthers in a row before walking Chloe Norman to lead off the seventh.
Ballinger almost had the rare and dubious honor of pitching a no-hitter as a losing pitcher. Milton’s Norman, just a freshman, matched her frame for frame, not surrendering a hit until Ficklin lined a single into right field in the fifth inning.
“I was just trying to focus on mechanics. I tried to think of my past at-bats,” said Ficklin after the game. “She [Norman] was coming in and then out on me, so I was like, ‘She is probably going to go in on me again.’ I changed to a two-strike approach, she threw me a rise, it was middle-in, and it just worked out.”
Down 1-0 with two outs and nobody on base in the bottom of the sixth, the Broncos mounted their comeback. Number seven batter Madisyn Strickland drew a walk. Houston then sent senior Emma Ward to pinch-hit for Bayleigh Girgis, and the move paid off when Ward ripped a single up the middle, moving Strickland to second base. With two strikes, Mika Wesley hit a dribbler to the left side of home plate. Norman charged and fielded the ball cleanly, but her throw sailed over the head of Panthers first baseman Adrienne Yoder and into right field. Strickland came home to tie the game, with Wesley and Ward ending up at second and third. After leadoff hitter Kerra Clarida was walked intentionally to load the bases, Ficklin ripped Norman’s 124th pitch of the night into the gap in right center field. All three runners scored as Ficklin slid into third base with a triple, giving Middleburg a commanding 4-1 lead.
Houston was proud of her junior right fielder.
“Mallory is small but she is one of those small but mighty kids,” she said. “This is her first year starting on varsity, and she has come up with some huge hits.”
Ficklin scored an insurance run when KK Hagan, who had like Ficklin had two hits, doubled to the fence in left center.
Milton’s Norman did reach base in the seventh, but Middleburg shortstop Izzy Pifer ended the game by snaring a line drive off the bat of Destiny Harris and catching Norman straying too far off of first base.
Milton took the lead in the first inning. Coastal Alabama C.C. commit Alexis Hawthorne drew a walk, moved all the way to third base on a throwing error and then scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Norman.
The Broncos face a stiff challenge in Matanzas. The Pirates, 22-1 and ranked second in Class 5A, are led by pitcher Leah Stevens, a University of Florida commit. Houston said the Broncos would focus more on themselves than on who they were facing.
“At this point in the playoffs everybody has a good pitcher,” she said. “It’s about making adjustments and having better at-bats each time you come up, and timely hitting.”
Milton ended its season with a 14-13 record.