BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Keystone Heights High School ended baseball’s regular season with a 12-2, five-inning loss to host Clay on April 10.
The Class 2A Indians (17-7) trailed 3-0 before scoring both of their runs in the third inning. Destin Harnage singled, while Andrew Wilson walked. Austin Smith, who went 2 for 3, drove in Harnage on one of his two doubles, followed by Guage Barry driving Wilson in on a ground out.
Clay, the seventh-ranked team in Class 4A, answered with a run in the bottom of the third and then scored four each in the fourth and fifth innings.
Keystone was held to four hits.
The Indians are the top seed in the District 4 tournament and will host fourth seed Interlachen or fifth seed P.K. Yonge in a semifinal game on Tuesday, April 15, at 7 p.m. If Keystone wins, it’ll host second seed Newberry, third seed Trinity Catholic or sixth seed Crescent City for the championship on Thursday, April 17, at 7 p.m.
Prior to its loss to Clay, Keystone got a home run from Aiden Screen, who batted in three runs in a 10-0, six-inning win over visiting Eagle’s View on April 8.
Barry and Ty Mitzel combined to pitch a no-hitter. Barry, who threw the second through sixth innings, struck out seven.
Screen, who went 2 for 3, drove the first pitch he saw in the fourth inning over the fence in left to give the Indians their first two runs.
Barry and Screen hit an RBI single and an RBI double, respectively, as part of a two-run fifth.
Keystone pushed six runs across in the sixth. Barry, who finished 2 for 3, and Mitzel each hit an RBI single, while Ryder Trull drove in the final two runs on a walk-off single.
Barry, Smith and Trull each had two RBI, while Mitzel finished with one.
