GREEN COVE SPRINGS - After a Friday of amazing area baseball finishes just a week ago with scintillating finishes and heroes popping up in the final moments, a week later, the win streaks of the Clay High baseball and softball teams; five in a row for the Blue Devils' baseball and softball teams came to screeching halts on both sides with Friday night being cruel with Episcopal, third-ranked in 3A (21-1), being a quick 10-0 winner to cap three losses in a row for Clay softball coach Matt Lewis, and Bartram Trail, with a 3-0 win, snapped the Blue Devils' baseball team five-game win streak that started with an exciting 7-6 win over Fleming Island.

“We won our last five including a 14-inning game to come out on top,” said Clay head coach Josh Persinger. “Winning is contagious, winning is awesome, winning will also punch you in the face when you take it for granted. Every loss we learn from."
On the boys’ side, after five wins in a row, including a walk-off 2-1 win over Yule, and a marathon 14-inning 1-0 win over First Coast, the Blue Devils only logged three hits and one error against the 13-9 Bartram Bears. The boys went down swinging, striking out nine times against Bears pitcher Luke Labbe who went the distance. Cole Carnell was the bright spot for the Blue Devils, going two for three in the batter’s box with a pair of singles in the 3-0 loss.
The Lady Blue Devils reinvigorated to a 7-12 season record with the return of senior pitcher McKinsey Bardroff, but also had a tough evening against Episcopal.
With the 10-run rule in the bottom of the sixth, the game ended with the Lady Blue Devils only getting two hits on the evening, and three strike-outs on the Eagles. The Blue Devils struck out 12 times trying to make contact to no avail in the 10-0 six-inning shutout.
The ladies didn’t have one bad inning as they never gave up more than three runs in an inning. The 21-1 Eagles started early with a run in the first inning and continued to build the lead one and two runs at a time in each inning. The Eagles put up three runs in the fourth inning to pull ahead 7-0 and added two more in the fifth, and one in the sixth. With Blue Devils Kaelye Rouw and Kendyll Mann the only two getting on board the bases, the runs just never developed for Clay in the 10-0 loss.
The Blue Devils boys’ team had similar woes with 22 at-bat opportunities, and only Carnell and Merrick Rapoza logging hits. The boys only walked three times in the 3-0 event. With no single issue facing Clay, it is the details that will get the work this week as Persinger gets his team ready for the last three games of the season.
“Preparation and back to work,” said Persinger. “At this point, everything is just a dress rehearsal for districts, regionals and hopefully state. This is just a little wake-up call, but we’re on the hunt for number one in the district. We’re where I want to be.”
The Bear’s scoring was not deep balls out of the park. In the second inning, with one out and runners on base, a dropped ball on the third strike had a Bartram runner heading to first. On the play, the Bears scored the runner from third base, 1-0.
The game remained 1-0 until the fifth inning when the Bears had no outs, and runners on second and third base. A grounder to Preston Andrews at shortstop allowed one run to score, 2-0. The next batter dropped one into right field where Reef Johnson couldn’t make the play, 3-0. Johnson’s throw was on target and held the runners from advancing any further. The Blue Devils defense went three up, and three outs for the rest of the inning to hold the Bears to a 3-0 lead. In the final three at-bat attempts, the Blue Devils could do no better than one runner on base in the sixth and seventh innings.
The Blue Devil Boys are road warriors Tuesday at Providence, and Wednesday at Baldwin before coming home to finish out the regular season with the annual Keystone Heights/Clay classic Thursday night, 7 pm.
The Lady Blue Devils wrap up on the road with Ridgeview on Tuesday night and at St. Augustine on Thursday.