FLEMING ISLAND – On a night, Fleming Island turned the lights on for the first time, the Eagles sub sequentially flipped the switch on Creekside as well.
Opened in 2003, for 15 years Fleming Island had played all of their home softball games at 4 p.m. due to not having lights, until now.
Playing at home under the lights for the first time, Fleming Island erased a 1-0 sixth inning deficit with a three run inning and 3-1 win over visiting Creekside last night.
,Sophomore pitcher Morgan Kendrick, an FSU commit, handcuffed a potent Creekside lineup striking out 16, walking two, while allowing just three hits to pick up her first win of the season. Kendrick admitted her changeup was working well on the night.
A dropped fly ball in the first inning allowed the Knights to take an early 1-0 lead. Kendrick and her defense settled down after that and only allowed two Knight runners to reach third.
Kendrick got out a jam in the top of the second after giving up a leadoff walk and allowing the runner to reach third on a wild pitch; by getting a pop up to the catcher and two strikeouts to end the threat.
While Kendrick was wheeling and dealing on the Knight hitters, her counterpart Mallory Sykes was doing the same keeping the Eagles off the base paths herself.
Sykes gave up a double in the bottom half of the inning before inducing a ground out and a pop up to end the threat.
In the third inning, both Kendrick and Sykes struck out the entire side to keep both teams off the bases.
Kendrick got into another jam in the fourth hitting a batter and giving up a one out single to put Knights on first and second with just one out. A fielders choice and another strikeout helped her get out of it.
After getting back-to-back strikeouts in the top of the sixth, Kendrick gave up a single up the middle and saw the runner reach second on a stolen base to give the Knights a chance; however Kendrick induced a grounder to second to end the inning.
Through five innings, Sykes had only given up two hits and struck out seven unofficially.
Things drastically changed in the sixth, as Chesney Miles lined a double down the third baseline to bring the trying run to second. Mackenzie Bullock singled to center field, Miles who initially stopped at third on the play, slid home head first safely on the errant throw from center allowing the Eagles to tie the game at one.
After a strikeout, sophomore catcher Anna Hull got behind in the count 1-2, as Sykes appeared to be one pitch from getting out of the inning and heading to the seventh in a 1-1 tie.
However, Hull got a hold of a Sykes fast ball and drilled it on top of the right center field fence before it eventually rolled over the fence for a two run homerun putting the Eagles up 3-1 surprisingly.
“I’m not sure what kind of pitch it was, I just got a good look on it and swung really hard,” Hull said. “I was just thinking just make contact and give us a lead. That’s my first homerun too.”
Her battery mate and best friend Kendrick knew it was gone right away.
“There was no doubt, I knew right away that was a home run that ball got pounded,” Kendrick said.
Sykes struck out the next batter but the damage had already been done as the Eagles had taken the lead with only three outs remaining.
With an even greater sense of confidence, Kendrick (1-0) shut down the Knights in order with three more strikeouts to give the Eagles their first win of the season.
Fleming Island head coach Jennifer Bucklew was understandably excited after the come from behind win on such a historic night for her program.
“We had been getting a lot of good at bats, I kept thinking lets just make something happen and they did,” Bucklew said. “Mackenzie (Bullock) had some rough at bats early on but she came through with the clutch hit to tie it and Anna (Hull) is just a sophomore and she had a 1-2 count on her and put an unbelievable swing on it.”
With the first game of the season against Atlantic Coast rained out, this was the first chance Bucklew got to really see her extremely young team together this season.
“We have such a young team we start three freshman, three sophomores, two juniors and one senior,” Bucklew said. This was a such a good win for us, huge confidence boost.”
Her two veterans in Kendrick and Hull agreed also.
“Last year they (Creekside) beat us 1-0 the first game of the season, Morgan threw a no hitter and lost, “Hull said. “I was thinking here we go again down 1-0 but this was definitely a huge confidence boost for us.”
Kendrick, who has been playing with Hull for four years now, agreed.
“This is a huge confidence boost for us, for having such a young team, it shows we have a lot to learn still but it lets us know we can play with great teams like Creekside and other teams.”
It doesn’t get any easier as Fleming Island (1-0) travels to Ridgeview (1-0) for a county showdown on Monday at 7 p.m., in what will be the first night game in Ridgeview history.
“It should be a really good game, its two evenly matched teams and it could go either way.” Kendrick said.
Edit: Photos courtesy of Tracy Maxwell
