OAKLEAF - Oakleaf High baseball has been having its good days and its bad days and the good days have been very, very good, with the bad days, well, just bad days.

One of those very good days; the first being an 8-5 win over St. Johns Country Day School on March 21 that shocked the baseball world in north Florida, the second, an equally shocking, though maybe just shocking to sportswriters, is coach Matt Carter's dismantling of the No. 1 ranked team in Florida with a 3-1 win over Trinity Christian on Fri., April 19.
Trinity Christian, with an 18-6 overall record, and a number nine ranking in Florida all classes just behind St. Johns Country Day School and now number four in Class 3A, was on the edge of five games lost in six games including two games at the prestigious USA Baseball National Invitational in North Carolina and two road losses to University Christian and Creekside, locally, hosted Oakleaf with a chance to reverse course against the seemingly vulnerable at a respectable 13-8 record.
Oakleaf, though, had a five-win, two-loss streak working with losses to St. Joseph Academy (2A 17-7) in eight innings and a 17-5 manhandling by Georgia 3A power Calvary Day (18-5) who was in town to play some local teams including St. Johns Country Day School. St. Johns beat Calvary 6-5 in 13 innings a day before Calvary rocked Oakleaf, but lost to Trinity Christian 11-1 the same day. Go Figure!!?
For Oakleaf, the key seems to be the emotional state of wild-haired Jorden Clarke, who whiffed just five against Trinity but got stellar defense behind him and solid relief pitching from Abrien Paseiro.
Clarke keeps balls in play and shortstop J Espinosa has been solid in his six spots with heads-up plays with runners in play for Trinity in the second inning.
In the fourth, Trinity struck with a monstrous triple off Clarke that scored one run.
In the ensuing inning, awakened from the dull drum of three batters per inning to this point, Oakleaf's bats rattled Trinity pitcher Aaron Watson with a double from Ryan Mueller, Jr., and singles from Ethan Brown, Jaythian Arriaga and Espinosa to put two runs on the board.
A hard grounder and an error at first base put Arriaga home and put Espinosa at third as Oakleaf took advantage of the defensive indecision as Oakleaf went up 3-1.
Both pitchers, Clarke and Watson for Trinity stayed on the mound into the sixth with Giancarlo Camejo coming in for Clarke after a walk to end the inning with a strikeout.
Camejo stayed in into the seventh before Paseiro finished the game with a strikeout.
Oakleaf (13-8) finishes with Mandarin (7-15) on the road on Tues., April 23 then home games with Interlachen (8-13) and Sandalwood (10-10).