GREEN COVE SPRINGS - With a monstrous fifth-inning, two-run homer, Clay High batter Cole Carnell put his name on the now-explosive list of hot bats for the Blue Devils as Clay won their region 1-4A semifinal series 2-0 with Tuesday's 6-2 win over Pensacola Escambia in front of a packed house at Clay High School.
"I haven't had a solid hit in five games, and this one was due," said Carnell, who pushed teammate Peyton McCrae across home plate before him off his single. "I wanted to join the party because my teammates were rocking their bats."
Carnell joined teammates Merrick Rapoza, JC Rosette and LJ Martin with his blast, as the Clay lineup has become explosive top to bottom in the past two weeks.
"It's nice to have everyone hitting like we are at this time," said Clay Coach Josh Persinger. "Cole is kind of the leader of the pack and tonight was his night."
Clay, the No. 2 seed, will wait for a third game finish between No. 1 Arnold and No. 3 Choctowhatchee on Wednesday night to determine the travel plans for next week. With that series tied at 1-1, if Arnold wins, Clay travels. If Choctowhatchee wins, Clay hosts the first two of the three game series.
"The Choctowhatchee win last night was big one for us,"said Persinger. "This field is our home turf and like you saw tonight, magic happens here."
In the early innings, both teams were hitting the ball hard, but right to gloves and without a pair of strong double plays on both sides stifling baserunning efforts.
Clay scored first second inning off an RBI double from Levi Chmura, who started on the mound for the Blue Devils. Chmura finished five innings on the mound with five strikeouts with Easton McMahan finishing the game with a flurry to seal the game in the final inning.
"We held him back the last few games (McMahan) just for this reason," said Persinger. "He wanted to go in the sixth, but Levi was holding his own. He did a great job and Easton finished them off."
Escambia threatened in the fifth with a wall-sized double, but Clay got an astounding split leg snag by first baseman Ethan Mathis on a hard grounder to get the inning out.
In the fifth, game one's here, walk-off homer guy L.J. Martin, ripped an RBI double that got the score to 4-0 with Chuma again answering with more runs to 5-0 and a wild pitch to 6-0.
Escambia got two in the sixth to make it interesting with a leadoff double, then a single, then a two-run single, but Chmura whiffed the final two batters to close the inning.