Martino Eagles finding "W"s

Ray DiMonda,
correspondant

Posted 3/14/24

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Martino Eagles finding "W"s

Posted Thursday, March 14, 2024 12:05 pm

Ray DiMonda,
correspondant

FLEMING ISLAND - With Mike Martino taking over the coach reigns from departed Gil Morales after just one season, the Fleming Island Golden Eagles continued to build momentum in the early 2024 season using two separate wild pitches to cross the first runs over the plate by Tanner Upton and Ben Abram in the bottom of the first inning. The Golden Eagles continued to keep the Ponte Vedra Sharks winless this season with a 4-2 Friday night win.

Fleming Island improves to 3-1 after back-to-back 5-4 preseason losses to Keystone Heights and Clay. The Eagle's lone regular season loss was an 11-1 drubbing by Buchholz with wins of 8-3 over Tocoi Cree, 5-1 over Flagler Palm Coast and the Ponte Vedra 4-2 win.

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Martino takes the Eagles to the Panhandle for an early week of power baseball with 1A-Bozeman High (7-0, 2023 region semifinalist, 2022 1A runnerup) hosting a bevy of teams from Florida and Tennessee; Oakleaf included, with 3A-Anderson County, 4A-Knoxville Central and 4A-McMinn County all enjoying some Panhandle sun and surf.
Fleming Island plays Bozeman on Mon., March 11, Anderson County on March 12, Knoxville Central on March 13 and McMinn County on March 14.
Oakleaf played McMinn County on Mon., March 11, with Knoxville Central on March 12 and Anderson County on March 13.
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In the bottom of the fourth, the Golden Eagles added the other two runs when Tanner Upton poked a single, moved to second off a Ben Abram single, and Ryan Kiley drove him home off a bad Shark play in the infield. Chris Reali grounded to right field to score Abram for the final 4-2 score.
Aaron Hawkins led the Fleming Island Defense from the mound, going four innings. Facing 19 batters, Hawkins gave up six hits, walked two and struck out one. Caden Swartz, Tito Guerrero, and Jonah Friedman split duties on the last three innings pitching one inning each, only giving up a single hit.
In a tight game against Flagler, 1-1 in the fifth inning, the Golden Eagle bats came alive with four runs in the sixth; led by a double from Ryan Kiley to open the inning, an error on a grounder from Aaron Hawkins, then a single from Tucker Fordham to load the bases.
A walk to Caden Swartz scored one run before Josh Murray singles in two runs and Ben Abram put one more in with a single.