St. John Neumann falls to Lakeland Christian in late stages of Class 2A state semifinal

FORT MYERS — Desperately needing offense to generate a seventh-inning comeback, the St. John Neumann baseball team nearly found its spark against Lakeland Christian.

With bases loaded and no outs, the Celtics were in prime territory to score. But the Vikings got out of the jam, downing Neumann 3-0 to punch their ticket to the Class 2A State Championship game against St. Johns Country Day, 8-3 winners over Westminster Academy.

“A lot of respect for Squeeze (Neumann coach Charlie Maurer) and what he’s done over there at Neumann,” Lakeland Christian coach Matt Diaz said. “We knew it was going to be a dogfight but didn’t know it would come down to having the go-ahead run at the plate for a while in the last inning. They don’t quit, and they don’t get blown out looking at their losses this year. They’re all to quality teams. We were blessed to come away with a win there.”

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Facing an arm that Neumann didn’t necessarily expect to see for six innings, the Celtics were not able to put much together offensively. That changed in the seventh inning when Lakeland Christian starter Daniel Hartley loaded the bases with no outs after going six strong innings.

An infield fly followed before an erratic pitch from Vikings reliever Anthony Schatz went to the backstop. The pitch bounced right back to Florida State commit Mookie Rodriguez behind the plate, who caught Neumann runners in a rundown and threw to second base. Hartley, who went to shortstop after his outing, appeared to be in the baseline between second and third receiving the ball as Charley Bergsma attempted to make a slide back into the base.

Maurer lobbied hard for interference, but his appeal was not enough. The next pitch, leadoff hitter Alex Kuenzle went down swinging for the final out of the game to deny the Celtics a chance at extending a two-out rally with the heart of their order looming.

“I was told that he was moving back to the bag to receive the ball,” Maurer said of his conference with umpires. “My argument was then why was the second baseman there on the bag? He was standing 10 feet off the bag. He was in the baseline when the catcher hadn’t thrown it yet. We did so many things wrong, they did so many things right. We shouldn’t have been in that. That was one of those, where I see it a certain way. You’ve got a guy covering the bag, with the shortstop just standing there. It is what it is.”

Diaz had a sense that his sophomore catcher would make a play, as the two had a brief conversation in the dugout after he struck out for the third time in the bottom half of the sixth inning.

“I knew he was OK when he didn’t get a hit in his last at-bat,” Diaz said. “He goes, ‘Sometimes you just have those days, but I’ve got to go win it behind the plate.’ He said that. When a sophomore catcher says that, you know why Florida State has committed him. The presence of mind was great. He kept his head up when it was real easy to just flip that ball to home plate hoping the pitcher covered. He knew the situation, knew the real run we were worried about was back at first base, and he came up looking. What a great play.”

The sixth inning brought back shades of what happened to Maurer’s Barron Collier team in the 2021 Final Four, as the Celtics had runners on first and second with one away trailing 1-0. Courtesy runner Nick Sakowski was picked off at second base by Hartley, much like Van Freischmidt was two years ago leading off the inning with a double in Barron Collier's state semifinal loss to Archbishop McCarthy.

Just like McCarthy, Lakeland Christian added insurance runs in bottom half of the sixth. A two-out rally started when Colby Brewington singled off Neumann starter Tyler Kozera. Wyatt Jenkins followed that up with a triple down the right-field line. Parker Galberaith then plated Jenkins with an RBI single to take a 3-0 lead into the seventh.

Kozera’s day finished with 100 pitches, 67 of which were strikes. He allowed eight hits over 5 2/3 innings of work, allowing a pair of earned runs with a walk and seven strikeouts. Hartley allowed four hits and four walks while striking out three.

“It felt good,” Hartley said of his outing. “Just kept the ball up in the zone. I have high spin on my fastball, so it looks faster than really is. I was just trying to let them get themselves out and keep my pitch count low. Later in the game I got a little tired and that’s when they stayed aggressive and started hitting the ball.”

Hartley had the Celtics off balance in part due to his inconsistency, as Neumann hitters popped out a total of 10 times.

“I think it was one of those things where we couldn’t get to him because he’s what we like to call effectively wild,” Maurer said. “We couldn’t get in a rhythm, and I’m sure he wasn’t trying to do that on purpose, but it was ball, ball, ball, strike, strike, ball, ball, ball, ball, strike, strike, strike, strike. I was yelling at my hitters to stay on offense.

“You can’t get in defensive mode and start taking B (grade) swings, because you can’t anticipate anything. There’s no pattern or rhythm. When we had him on the ropes, we shot ourselves in the foot.”

Neumann’s season concludes with a 23-9 record and a state semifinal appearance in Maurer’s first year leading the program.

“That’s how I ended it out there with them,” Maurer said. “The young guys now know what it takes, No. 1. No. 2, you’ve been here. It takes the awe out of it, and hopefully it keeps them hungrier. They got a taste of it. They know they belong, and we’re going to miss the seniors and our two starters (Kozera and Carter White) tremendously.

“At the end of the day, next year is a new year. We’ll figure that out later, but I can’t be thankful enough or happy enough for these seniors. It’s been a heck of a ride.”

Follow Southwest Florida Sports Writer Alex Martin on Twitter: @NP_AlexMartin. For the best sports coverage in Southwest Florida, follow @newspresssports and @ndnprepzone on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Lakeland Christian downs St. John Neumann to advance to 2A title game