MIDDLEBURG - Just as the Middleburg High softball team was tagging rival Oakleaf with a late inning flurry of runs off a homer and an RBI double, the Fleming Island High baseball team was holding off a similar attack by the Middleburg High baseball team who were battling back from a 4-0 early gap to a 4-3 seventh inning rally with one baserunner; Nate Austin, in position to push the game to extra innings.
Unfortunately, for Middleburg, Fleming Island pitcher Caden Schwartz was having none of it as he whiffed the final two Broncos batters to end the threat to give Fleming Island the dicey 4-3 win.
"We have been building our own confidence as the season has progressed and are learning that we may be good enough to win games like this," said Fleming Island coach Mike Martino, now 4-5. "We opened the season is a little bit of turmoil (six losses), but we have worked ourselves to being fundamentally sound and are now playing good baseball."
For Middleburg first year coach Jordan Cuchoyt, the loss was a tough pill, but the team's enthusiasm for making Fleming Island sweat a bit in the late innings was a good sign of the team's attitude.
"Middleburg has always been a scrappy team for as long as I've been a coach in the area and tonight, we played right to the final out," said Cuchoyt, now 6-5, but with three losses in the past three games; two by one run with a 10-2 loss to University Christian sandwiched between the two one-run losses. "We just have to become more consistent in our play and find ways to win the close games."
University Christian, 7-4, was a 2A region semifinalist last year with their loss to eventual 2A champion St. Johns Country Day School.