BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Three pitchers combined to allow just one run in the Keystone Heights High School softball team’s 5-1 win over visiting Interlachen on March 7.
Keystone (4-3) trailed 1-0 before scoring two runs in the third off a single by Bella Cumbo and a double by Kadence Massey.
Tayler Buchanan drove in the final run on a sacrifice fly as part of a two-run sixth inning.
Massey finished 2 for 4, while Amber Wagner went 2 for 3 with a triple.
Starting pitcher Shelby Stewart gave up one run and two hits in 3.1 innings. She had eight strikeouts.
Audry Cisco allowed one hit and struck out seven in 2.2 innings, while Massey gave up no hits and struck out two in the final inning.
It was the second straight win for Keystone after the week began with a 10-0 loss to host Baker County on March 4.
The Indians were held to three hits, while Baker had 12, including two home runs, three doubles and a triple.
Keystone’s bats fared better in the Indians’ next game, which was a 17-4, five-inning win over host Clay on March 5.
The Indians scored in every inning and pushed nine runs across in the fifth. The big inning began with a Cumbo single with one out and no one on. She scored on a Cadie Bowles double. Buchanan and Massey both walked to load the bases. Bailey Amato hit a two-run single, followed by a two-run double by Wagner.
With two outs, the inning continued when Kaleigh Marquart was hit by a pitch. Chloe Still then walked to load the bases, setting the stage for Cumbo’s three-run triple. The final run scored when Bowles reached on an error.
Wagner, who had a two-run double in the first, finished 3 for 3 with two doubles and four RBI, while Cumbo went 3 for 4 with three RBI.
Amato and Bowles each drove in two runs, while Buchanan, Marquart and Maddi Glinski each had one RBI.
Massey went 2 for 3 with a double.
Cisco pitched all five innings, giving up eight hits and striking out seven.
The Indians host Middleburg on Tuesday, March 11, at 6:30 p.m. and will host Ponte Vedra on Friday, March 14, at 6:30 p.m.
