18 wins and counting: Baldwin extends perfect softball run in Gateway Conference victory

Day by day, week by week, Baldwin softball's numbers keep adding up.

Four Gateway Conference titles in a row. Eighteen wins in a row. Two hundred and one runs scored this season, compared to 16 allowed.

This is Softball Town, North Florida, crowned as Gateway Conference champion again Thursday night in a 10-0 victory over Paxon in Duval County's public school championships.

Once Shaylen Byrd drove in the 10th and game-ending run in the bottom of the sixth, the fireworks blasted, the fans cheered from their pickup trucks beyond the outfield wall and one more trophy entered the cabinet in B-Town.

Is there a deeper team in the Sunshine State? Maybe not.

"We're not just one through nine, we're one through seventeen," Baldwin coach Jennifer Shields said. "I feel confident with anybody on the bench going in and getting us a hit."

Stats leaders: Northeast Florida's top high school softball performers, April 9

DEPTH FUELS BALDWIN AGAINST PAXON

From Cali Hartung's RBI single in the first to Byrd's sixth-inning hit to activate the mercy rule, Baldwin kept Paxon under pressure all night.

Baldwin racked up 17 hits Thursday against Paxon, with every starter reaching base at least once in a pattern that's become familiar.

"There's not really a feeling to describe it," Hartung said. "We work hard for what we want, and we just come out here every single day and we achieve it."

The game pulled out of reach in a five-run third, highlighted by RBIs from Riley Page and Amiyah Jones before Kendall North whacked a double.

On top of the long-ball power from Hartung (six home runs) and the trio of Jazmine Ramos-Merced, North and Chloe Gotto (three home runs each), Baldwin bats .385 as a team, led by North at .538 on first base.

By now, no one in Duval County public school competition even comes close. Baldwin rolled past its Gateway foes by a combined 45-0, and hasn't lost a Gateway tournament game since 2019.

BYRD SHUTS DOWN GOLDEN EAGLES

By now, Byrd is becoming a master of escaping pressure — or preventing it altogether.

In the first and third innings, Paxon threatened to strike, loading the bases in the opening frame before Byrd slammed the door with a pair of strikeouts.

She finished with 10 strikeouts on the night, limiting Paxon to four hits. The Golden Eagles (11-6) had marched into Baldwin with a team batting average of .327, paced by Mackenzie Pitzer, Jaela Palmer and Kassidy Edwards above .400.

For the year, Byrd has struck out 150 batters with only 12 walks, with an ERA of 1.07.

"I think we're just leveling up every year as it goes," Byrd said.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR BALDWIN?

Is an undefeated season in Baldwin's future?

At 18-0, they've got a chance to join some of Northeast Florida's most illustrious regular season performers, including 2009 Fletcher and 2014 Ponte Vedra, who both entered the postseason unbeaten.

Six games remain on the regular season slate, with Oakleaf (April 16), Keystone Heights (April 23) and Creekside (April 25) the most difficult ones on paper.

They've qualified for the Florida High School Athletic Association final four in each of the last two years, only to see their season ended early in Clermont.

"They want to do better than what we did last year," Shields said. "So that's really pushed us."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Gateway Conference high school softball final: Baldwin-Paxon, 2024