JULINGTON CREEK – Upon the completion of the St. Johns County Middle School Athletic Association regular season, Swiss Point, Fruit Cove and Landrum were all tied in the overall standings; lucky for everyone there was a postseason tournament to settle things.
When the dust settled, third seeded Landrum defended its county title with a 6-0 win over top seeded Swiss Point in the championship game.
Despite all finishing with identical records, Swiss Point (8-1) was awarded the top seed, Fruit Cove Blue (8-1) the two seed and Landrum (8-1) the three seed.
Things would be played out in the end of season postseason tournament featuring all ten county teams playing in a double elimination playoff.
Ninth seeded Murray won a nail bitter over eighth seeded Fruit Cove Gold 11-10, while seventh seeded Gamble Rogers handed tenth seeded Sebastian 9-2 to both advance to the second round of the playoffs.
Both Fruit Cold Gold and Sebastian went into the losers bracket, while Gamble Rogers and Murray stayed in the winners bracket temporarily.
However, all four were eliminated by the next game or the following game as the tournament was down to six teams after a few rounds of playoffs.
Top seeds Swiss Point, Fruit Cove Blue and Landrum all won their second round games easily to move on to the semifinals.
Swiss Point knocked Murray down to the losers bracket with a 15-0 win, Fruit Cove Blue sent Gamble Rogers there too with a 15-0 win and Landrum shut out sixth seed Valley Ridge 10-0.
In the semifinals, top seeded Swiss Point won a tough 3-1 game over fourth seeded Patriot Oaks to advance to the championship round; where they would face Landrum, a 7-1 winner over second seeded Fruit Cove Blue in the final semifinal.
Having both survived two rounds of playoffs, this wouldn’t decide who would win the title but who would drop down to the losers bracket.
Landrum had little trouble with Swiss Point with a 11-2 win to advance to the championship.
Swiss Point dropped to the losers bracket and had to win an elimination game against either Fruit Cove Blue or Patriots Oaks to get back to the championship game.
After 17 grueling games, the championship would come down to undefeated Landrum and one loss Swiss Point.
Swiss Point would have to knock off Landrum twice to win the title. However, the Lions (12-1) made sure that didn’t happen by shutting out the Raiders (11-3) 6-0 to win their second straight county title.
SJMSAA Softball Tournament
Game 1: #9 Murray 11, #8 Fruit Cove Gold 10
Game 2: #7 Gamble Rogers 9, #10 Sebastian 2
Game 3: #4 Patriot Oaks 7, #5 Pacetti Bay 5
Game 4: #1 Swiss Point 15, #9 Murray 0
Game 5: #2 Fruit Cove Blue 15, #7 Gamble Rogers 0
Game 6: #3 Landum 10, #6 Valley Ridge 0
Game 7: #7 Gamble Rogers 15, #10 Sebastian 3 (Sebastian eliminated)
Game 8: #8 Fruit Cove Gold 11, #9 Murray 8 (Murray eliminated)
Game 9: #1 Swiss Point 3, #4 Patriot Oaks 1
Game 10: #3 Landrum 7, #2 Fruit Cove Blue 1
Game 11: #5 Pacetti Bay 9, #7 Gamble Rogers 3 (Gamble Rogers eliminated)
Game 12: #6 Valley Ridge 11, #8 Fruit Cove Gold 1 (Fruit Cove Gold eliminated)
Game 13: #2 Fruit Cove Blue 11, #5 Pacetti Bay 2 (Pacetti Bay eliminated)
Game 14: #4 Patriot Oaks 8, #6 Valley Ridge 6 (Valley Ridge eliminated)
Game 15: #3 Landrum 11, #1 Swiss Point 2
Game 16: #2 Fruit Cove Blue vs #4 Patriot Oaks (No score reported)
Game 17: #1 Swiss Point vs Fruit Cove Blue/Patriot Oaks winner (no score reported)
Game 18: #3 Landrum 6, #1 Swiss Point 0 (Swiss Point eliminated)
