FLEMING ISLAND – For eight innings, fans were treated to an old fashioned pitchers duel between starters senior Caleb Lanoux and sophomore Brent May and reliever Damien Torres as the threesome combined for 5 hits and 16 strikeouts in eight scoreless innings.
With one swing of the bat, on Lanoux’s 106 pitch of the game, Derek Barone changed that, Barone lined a 2 RBI double over the head of center fielder Drew Wilkerson allowing visiting Strawberry Crest to stun host Fleming Island 2-0 in nine innings to advance to the Class 7A Final Four.
Lanoux handcuffed the Chargers allowing just three hits, while striking out seven to keep the Eagles in it thanks to a mixture of pitches. Unfortunately, his offense couldn’t help him out.
“He’s thrown every inning for us in the postseason and if he was allowed to he would stayed in there the rest of the game,” interim coach Grant Bigilin said. “He’s done everything for us and he’s been our hot guy. He did a great job of mixing up his curve and fastball.”
Not bad for a guy who played catcher most of his life and became a closer for the Eagles last season and signed with Seminole State College as a catcher.
A leaf off single from Joey Parrillo in the first inning was wasted as shortstop Noah McCullom erased the bases with a 6-4-3 double play and followed with a put out to first to end the inning.
McCullom singled on an infield bunt, stole second and reached third on an error by first baseman Barone, but was left stranded after May induced a pop up to third and struck out Lanoux.
After seeing two Chargers reach first and second in the second inning thanks to a lead off single and fielders choice; Lanoux got out of the jam striking out two in a row along with a grounder to short fielded by McCullom.
Both pitchers got into a groove and quickly retired the side as Lanoux retired six in a row after the fielders choice, while May retired nine in a row before allowing a single to right in the fifth.
After Ryan Dell led off the fourth with a single to left, Lanoux picked him off between second and third to keep the Chargers out of scoring position.
In the bottom of the fifth, Hawkins singled to right and reached third on errant throw from May to first but was left stranded at third after May got a grounder to second to end the threat.
Dell reached on a error by Cole Belcher with two outs but was left stranded as Lanoux picked up his sixth strikeout of the game.
Wilkerson walked to lead off the sixth on four straight pitches chasing May out of the game as the Chargers brought in Torres. Zack Mercer drew a one out walk to put Eagles on first and second, but May got out of it striking out Lanoux and Belcher.
Lanoux retired the side in the seventh and allowed a lead off single in the eighth before McCullom helped him out again with another 6-4-3 double play.
After a walk in the sixth, Torres retired eight of the next nine to send the Chargers into the ninth still scoreless.
Dell’s one out single to left and Pues fielders choice, which was fielded by McCullom and appeared to gun Dell out at third but was ruled safe, put Chargers at second and third with one out in the ninth.
Barone worked a 3-2 count before taking a fastball high and deep to center over Wilkerson allowing both Dell and Pue to score the first runs of the game.
The full count pitch was Lanoux 106 pitch of the game, 14 away from the maximum allowed since he was 19 years old.
Lanoux was lifted for freshman Aiden Mastantuno, who quickly got out of the inning with a grounder to first and a strikeout.
Needing two to tie or three to win it, it was going to take a huge rally from the Eagles to win this one.
Torres didn’t give them a chance though outside of a lead off walk his defense sat the Eagles down in order to send the Chargers to Fort Myers for the first time in the schools brief history.
Quite a run for the Eagles (12-14-1), who two months ago were not even on the playoff radar after a loss to Middleburg March 28, but won five out of seven, including a run to the St. Johns River Athletic Conference title game before losing to an even hotter St. Augustine team.
Not to mention saw its head coach Marty Lanoux step aside for medical reasons and played the latter part of its schedule under Biglin.
After three straight losses to Fernandina Beach, Bishop Kenny and Episcopal to close out the season, many begin to doubt them and their chances of making the playoffs again.
“We beat Atlantic Coast and Fletcher in the district tournament and then two really good Tallahassee teams Lincoln and Chiles just to get here,” said Bigilin. “We finally came together and realized we do have something special and this team didn’t fold under pressure.
“It’s not how you start its how you finish I told them, but the win over Fletcher was huge and we got hot at the right time and went on a magical run, unfortunately we ran into a really good and hot team tonight as well that just got the best of us, I’m really proud of our guys.”
