FLEMING ISLAND - Fleming Island High baseball coach Mike Martino has always been steadfastly optimistic that, at some point, his very young team will find the maturity and enthusiasm to play as well as he thinks they can.
"We came in very young and I told them it would take getting back to fundamentals and basic skills to win the bigger games," Martino had said at the season start. "We have one senior on team; Ryan Kiley (first base, pitcher) and the rest are underclassmen with limited varsity experience."
Martino took his lumps in the early part of the season with losses of 13-1, 5-0, 8-1 and 6-1, but then a handful of wins came with the Golden Eagles winning three of their next four; 6-2 over Orange Park, 11-7 over First Coast, 4-3 over a much-improved Middleburg team and a 7-2 win on March 7 over Menendez.
Against Middleburg, with a 4-0 lead and a hold off of a late innings rally by the Broncos, Martino smiled a bit more and liked his team's reaction to the tough game.
"It's what I thought we could do," said Martino, after the Middleburg win. "We had to gut out the win against a very good Middleburg team that has always been scrappy."
Most recently, Fleming Island has been bruised trying to hang on to those final innings of games that have started strong; 4-0 on Oakleaf; lost 9-8 in eight innings; and, on Friday, a late 1-0 fifth inning lead on Clay, 11-4, ranked fourth in Class 5A) evaporated with the vaunted Blue Devil batting lineup erupting for four runs in a 5-1 loss.
With Clay ace Easton McMahan on the mound, the Fleming Island bats were facing off against a future University of Florida hurler and the Golden Eagles stood their ground with Fleming Island starter Caden Swartz going toe to toe for a 0-0 score after four innings with Clay with just two singles and a McMahan double that got a tag out of Clay baserunner Logan Martin at third; Martin walked to get on base.
In the top of the fourth, Swartz kept control with three groundouts, but Clay was making contact on his pitches.
McMahan stuttered in the fourth with two walks to give Fleming Island an upset scenario, but Clay caught Fleming Island base runner R Kiley late at second base after a walk and McMahan ended the inning striking out L Reilly.
Swartz kept calm and delivered three outs in the fifth to elicit a fiery dugout chat from Clay coach Josh Persinger that seemed to ignite the bats wiht Ma Atchison singling, moving on a H Mildenberger bunt, then Swartz punching in an RBI single followed by Chase Donaldson singling to put the Clay defense on it's toes. Kiley hit a long fly that Clay centerfielder Cole Carnell tracked down to end the inning.
In the sixth, with Swartz still on the mound, Clay finally erupted with consecutive singles after a McMahan walk and an error on a Merrick Rapoza grounder at first base to get a line drive RBI from J Rosette, a 2RBI single by L Chmura and a P McRae RBI single to a 4-1 lead. Carnell nearly hit a knockout punch with a long fly ball caught at the fence by Swartz in centerfield who moved to put sidewinder J Hatten on the mound.
Clay got one more off a Martin single, McMahan walk and Rapoza double that set up an RBI grounder to Rosette.
Fleming Island, 4-8, was scheduled to play in a Spring Break tournament in Panama City Beach against Knoxville Central (3-2 out of TN), McMinn County (4-1, TN) , Silverdale Academy (3-2, TN) and McMinn a second time for the March 17-20 week.
Clay travels to the Tampa area for a two day stay with games against Tampa Jesuit (11-3, Class 5A champions, ranked No. 1 in 5A, 14th in Florida All Classes) and IMG Academy (11-1, ranked 25th in USA 2024, No. 2 in USA 2025), on March 20 and March 21. IMG was unbeaten until a 7-6 loss to South Walton High on March 13.
Clay, on the opposite spectrum, had been on a winning roll with their tough defense and strong pitching, but, lately, a late starting batting attack with losses to St. Johns Country Day School (3-2 4 hits, 15Ks) and Tocoi Creek (5-4, 3 hits, 11Ks) recently via lack of bats that got followed by stronger efforts with a 4-1 win over St. Augustine and the 5-1 win over Fleming Island.