MIDDLEBURG - Middleburg High softball has this reputation about big bats in big games, but the aura has been tested in 2025 with the batting lineup taking on a Jekyll and Hyde personality.
Even with the up and down batting power outages, the Broncos are on top of Class 5A rankings with one of the strongest strength of schedule ratings in the area. St. Thomas Aquinas, 4-8 and ranked 16th in 5A, has an astounding 17.4 strength of schedule compared to Middleburg's 13.4. One of the proponents of strength of schedule is based on season record vs. season records of opponents.
In two recent games this past week, the Bronco bats have seemingly started to stir with Ashley Houston's girls knocking out wins of 11-0 over Fletcher and 12-1 over Mandarin behind 11 hits in both games.
In between the 11-0 win over Fletcher and a 9-1 win (9 Hits), the Broncos bats were stymied in a 4-2 loss to 7A-Creekside (4 Hits) and a 2-0 loss to Baker County (3 Hits) with a 4-1 loss (3 Hits) to Wakulla last week in a Thursday road game to the Panhandle.
On Friday against Mandarin, Middleburg got homers from Madisyn Strickland and Caylee Johnson with a double from Kerra Clarida to start an avalanche of six runs; two runs in apiece with pitcher Lily Bennett also singling in two runs.
Strickland's RBI homer in the third had Mallory Ficklin on base from a walk, then three singles in a row from Isabel Pifer, Johnson and Mika Wesley to set up Clarida's two run single got the score to 10-0.
In the third, KK Hagan singled after Pifer's first single to score a run, then Clarida bashed a double to get Hagan in before Bennett flyballed out.
Against Fletcher, it was Pifer with a homer with the Broncos smashing a seven run fourth inning with five singles and three walks.
Facing Wakulla senior pitcher Charley Bennett, who has amassed 135 strikeouts on the season, 834 in her four year career with a 1.22 earned runs average, the Broncos figured out Bennett in the third inning with a single to Cloey Ballinger followed by Ficklin's RBI triple, but that was it for the night. Bennett finished with 15 strikeouts. Wakulla lost 6-2 in the 4A region finals last year to eventual runnerup Baker County who lost 1-0 to Eustis in the final.
In 2023, Wakulla beat Baker County in the region final before losing to Lake Wales in the final 7-2.
Middleburg got a base loaded scenario in the sixth with an error, Strickland hit by a pitch and a walk to Pifer, but Butler extinguished the threat with a strikeout.
In the Broncos 2-0 loss to Baker County in late March, Baker County freshman pitcher Grace Masterson (76 Ks for season) stymied the Bronco bats with her own 15 strikeouts.
Middleburg has Nease and Columbia on the agenda with a visit from Baker Countyu on Friday, April 11 and a road game to Baldwin on April 22 to get ready for district and region play.
Down south in Kissimmee, speaking of gauntlet schedules, Oakleaf and Keystone Heights softball took a week to bash bats with the likes of Bartow (6A runnerup), Coral Reef (7A region semifinalist), Viera High (region loss to Bartow) and 4A-Eau Gallie High (11-6, region finalist 2024) for the Knights with the Lady Indians facing off Florida Christian (2A region semifinalist), Jensen Beach (4A region finalist), 7A-St. Cloud (13-5, region quarters) and, close to home, West Nassau (3A region semifinalist) at the annual Kissimmee Klassic Invitational.
Oakleaf had losses to Bartow (6-0), Coral Reef (6-0), Viera (8-5) and Eau Gallie (14-2) while Keystone Heights had wins over Florida Christian (5-1) and Jensen Beach (3-2) to start with losses to St. Cloud (6-1) and a thriller to West Nassau (1-0).
Ironically, Oakleaf travels to Keystone Heights on Tuesday, April 8 with Keystone Heights visiting Fleming Island on Thursday, April 10. Oakleaf has Ridgeview before Baldwin, Creekside and Tocoi Creek in the final two weeks of the season.
Fleming Island snapped a four game win streak with a tough 4-3 loss to University Christian (12-3, No. 3 in 1A) with a fifth inning double from Bailee Wadley, a bunt from Anisten Kurlander and a two run single from Liv Sikes getting the score to 4-2 and an error to 4-3.
Fleming Island, now 9-5, had four doubles on the night.