ORANGE PARK - Clay High baseball coach Josh Persinger was a tad irritated with his Blue Devils' batting production from his third base line coaching spot, but a homer by Tyler Mills in the first inning that came after Garrett Chun doubled then stole home put the Blue Devils up 2-0 en route to a 12-3 outing against Orange Park High on Wed., March 4.

Persinger's angst could have been from a 3-2 loss to 4A-Santa Fe the day before with the bats netting just seven hits in 30 at bats.

"We have some young guys trying to figure it out," said Persinger. "We work on our approach and I didn't see that much early in the game."

Though Clay's bat production slowed and Persinger's admonishing got louder, the Blue Devils got another bomb from Mills with a double in the third that became a run off a sacrifice fly deep to center field by Mason Barrett. The fly was successful, but the sprinting catch by Orange Park centerfielder Bryson Wyche may have stole the show.

Both teams got three to the batter's box with no result until the fifth with a walk to Chun and doubles from Dylan Greene and Logan Wilson scoring the game 5-0. Chun would single in Blake Parker who outsprinted a throw from third to first base with Mills against blasting away with another extra base double to score the game 9-0.

"If you look at our record and stats through seven games in 2018 (the year we went to the Final Four), we were 4-3 and batting .227," said Persinger. "Right now were 5-2 and batting .236. What that means is that it's not time to panic, however, if something doesn't change it's going to be hard to keep winning ball games."

Clay got bases loaded in the seventh with error and a Greene single getting the Blue Devils to 12-0.

Three singles from Orange Park; Wyche, Alex Oakes, Nate Schirmer, got three runs for the Raiders.