KEYSTONE HEIGHTS - Keystone Heights softball coach Jessica Marquart is well known for her tortuous schedules and that has played well with the Lady Indians grinding through their seasons with plenty of dramatics, wins and losses, with a scintillating come from behind seventh inning win over a fastly-improving Ridgeview team on Friday at Keystone Heights.

"Yes, I always like to have a tough schedule to prepare girls for the post season," said Marquart, who squeezed in the 6-5 win over Ridgeview behind game losses to Santa Fe and Baldwin, both state ranked powers. "Puts pressure on them in games like this. They never gave up, especially with two outs."

Before and after the Ridgeview win, Marquart's team faced off against a 13-1 Santa Fe team ranked number one in Class 3A and got defeated 11-2, won the Ridgeview game, then faced off against 3A rival Baldwin with a tough 4-3 loss with Baldwin (8-3, ranked seventh in Class 2A) scoring three runs in the final two innings.

Against Ridgeview, senior pitcher Kadence Massey, with eight strikeouts, withstood two homers from her rival pitcher, Ridgeview's Saige Bialek, and had the backup of a stellar defensive effort, plus a six-error final inning from Ridgeview's defense to garner the exciting win.

"I now know that we have to practice pressure," said Ridgeview coach Angela Agurkis, who watched as her 5-1 lead evaporated in the sixth inning behind Keystone Heights hitting hard singles: Tayler Buchanan, Amberlea Wagner and Massey, then a single to Cadie Bowles and error to a Buchanan grounder to 5-3. A Wagner pop got dropped to 5-4 before Massey hit a dropped centerfield fly ball to 6-5 to win the game.

"Lack of communication out there on our part, great grit on their part," said Agurkis, who returned to the W column with a 7-1 win over Orange Park on Friday. "We will have plenty to communicate this week in practice."

Against Santa Fe, Keystone Heights got a two-run homer from Chloe Still.
Against Baldwin, Keystone Heights had a 3-1 lead into the sixth inning behind an RBI double from Bowles and an RBI single from Wagner to go ahead to 2-1. Baldwin scored first with an RBI double off Massey.

Two errors got Still and Wagner on base in the fourth, but Keystone Heights could not get them home.

Bowles again got the first hit of the fifth with Buchanan pushing her to third and Wagner walking to set up a Massey grounder to score Bowles, 3-1.
Baldwin tied the game 3-3 with timely hits, a sacrifice fly and a fielder's choice grounder before taking the game with an RBI double in the seventh.
Keystone Heights continues March 24 with games at Clay and at undefeated (8-0) Baker County before returning home against Oakleaf in a three-games in a row series. Baker County is ranked fourth in Florida, first in Class 4A.

Around the county, Fleming Island won a 9-2 game against Clay at Clay High on Friday to improve to 7-2 overall with Clay at 3-9.

Fleming Island has won four of their last five games with a 5-4 loss to Beachside the lone blemish and wins of 7-2 over Palatka, 17-4 over Flagler Palm Coast and 16-0 over St. Augustine before the Clay win.

For Fleming Island, sophomores Victoria Vazquez and Emily Williams have 15 and 14 hits, respectively, to lead the Golden Eagles at bats with Williams with 12 runs batted in and junior Ashlyn Madine pushing a team leading 16 RBIs off 10 hits. Madine has been machine-like in hitting doubles—one against Clay, two homers and a double against Flagler with seven RBIs.

Williams was the winning pitcher against Clay. Clay will try and snap a five-game losing streak with a March 24 home game with Keystone Heights, then road games to Menendez and Ponte Vedra (8-2, ranked 14th in 5A).

Oakleaf has also been on a monster schedule at 1-5 with losses to Ponte Vedra, Middleburg and Keystone Heights with Baker County scheduled for March 24 then road trips to Keystone Heights and Bartram Trail.

Middleburg, at 7-4, lost recently to Baker County, 3-1, and Baldwin, 11-9. The Broncos were down 8-1 into the third before getting some bats on fire with homers from Madisyn Strickland and Izzy Pifer getting the score to 8-7, then Strickland belted a second homer to 10-9 with Baldwin getting an RBI double to 11-9 in the sixth.

Middleburg got eight hits and nine RBIs against Baldwin.
Against Baker County, the Wildcats scored the first two runs in the second and third with Middleburg getting their run in the sixth off an Emma Ward single with Pifer and Cloey Ballinger both on base.

Baker County pitcher Grace Masterson struck out 14 Bronco batters.
Orange Park, 2-8, got wins over Riverside, 18-3, and Clay, 4-2, to end their eight-game losing streak from the season start. Riverside saw Regan Barnett smash two homers for the Raiders—one inside the park grand slammer.

Against Clay, Orange Park scored runs in the sixth and seventh for the win with timely hits, walks and errors putting baserunners in place for the Raiders.
St. Johns Country Day School is 3-4 with recent wins over Orange Park, 4-1, and St. Joseph Academy, 7-4, and a 10-0 loss to Bishop Snyder ending the week.
Spartans' pitcher Jai Mei Kemp had 10 strikeouts in a win over St. Joseph. Kemp had nine strikeouts in a win over Orange Park.