SPARTANS' SPRINT: St. Johns Country Day ends wait, wins FHSAA baseball title in extras
Three late-round playoffs. Three late-inning walk-offs. Finally, the wait is over for St. Johns Country Day.
Connor O'Steen dashed home with the winning run on a dropped third strike and the Spartans banished three years of postseason heartbreak to capture their first-ever baseball championship, defeating Miami Christian 4-3 in an eight-inning thriller in Wednesday's Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A final at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.
The Spartans' wild ride, one that included a trip to the National High School Invitational in North Carolina as well as the consecutive walk-off game-winners from George Gilson in the final eight and final four, ends in a first-ever baseball title on Doctors Lake Drive.
Denied in the 2021 and 2023 finals, St. Johns is a champion at last.
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Just as in the previous two rounds, walk-off drama capped the Spartans' triumph.
Pinch-hitter T.J. Sunderhaus, batting .043, opened the bottom of the eighth with his second hit of 2024. Then, Hunter Rodgers laid down a bunt but pitcher Hector Escobar heaved the ball into right, an error advancing Sunderhaus to third.
From there, Sunderhaus was retired at home trying to score on a wild pitch. But after a walk to Preston Cole, a potential strike three to Gibby Gilliand squirted away and senior O'Steen, pinch-running for Rodgers, dashed across the plate to cue scenes of exuberance.
The Spartans (25-6) had to bounce back from a near-disastrous seventh, when Miami Christian clawed back from 3-1 down against closer Trevor Bradley. After pinch-hitter Mikey Palenzuela and Kevin Bruno got on base and Jendy Gonzalez dropped down a sacrifice bunt, Willy Mendez followed with an RBI single to right and Ronny Cruz hit a sac fly to center that tied the game 3-3.
Freshman Gavin Coffey — who had only pitched one inning since April 24, during the first-round regional against Gainesville St. Francis — pitched a scoreless eighth to earn the victory.
Austin Stratmann, back on the mound after throwing 22 pitches in relief two nights earlier, repeatedly worked out of trouble in a gritty start. The University of North Florida-committed left-hander battled through five innings to contain the Victors (22-5), holding them to seven hits and one run while striking out four.
The Spartans, ranked at the top of the FHSAA Class 2A rankings for long stretches of the past four years, did their early damage at the plate during the third inning. Kolt Myers drove a two-out single off starting pitcher Lucas Rodriguez to score Kyle Boylston with the go-ahead run, and after a walk, Seth Alford drove in Myers and Gilson with a two-run hit.
Victory also marks a rare milestone for Florida-signed shortstop Myers, now part of a father-and-son championship duo after his father, former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Brett Myers, won the Class 4A championship with Englewood in 1999.
St. Johns becomes the first baseball champion from Northeast Florida since Bolles and Nease won titles in 2017, and the first ever for Clay County. Counting St. Johns Country Day's defeats in 2021 and 2023, county schools had fallen short in six previous finals, including Keystone Heights (1995, 1996), Clay (2014) and Fleming Island (2021).
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: St. Johns Country Day baseball championship: Final vs. Miami Christian
