St. Johns Country Day baseball rolls past Westminster in semifinal, heads to 2A title game
St. Johns Country Day is one away from the title.
Junior third baseman Seth Alford knocked in three RBI and the Spartans never let up, defeating Westminster Academy 8-3 in Thursday's Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A baseball semifinal at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.
They'll get the chance to play for their first-ever FHSAA title at 11 a.m. Saturday against Lakeland Christian. St. Johns previously reached the 2021 final but lost to Sarasota Out-of-Door.
Alford went 3 for 3, finishing a single shy of the cycle, while Kellen Brown doubled and George Gilson added two more RBI.
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St. Johns starter Jacob Thomas yielded seven hits, a walk and a hit batsman over four innings but limited the damage against the Lions, who left the bases loaded in the first and stranded runners on the corners in the fourth. Jeffrey Henry sealed the game with three innings of hitless relief.
Westminster (16-10) edged in front in the top of the first inning on Jesus Garcia's RBI single, but Thomas forced a bases-loaded line-out to Alford and St. Johns (26-4) never trailed again. Alford's first-inning triple off Lions starter Colin Cartagena plated Kyle Boylston and Shawn Andrade, quickly followed by Isaiah Mamea's RBI single. The Spartans added two runs in the third and two more in the fifth.
St. Johns, which also qualified for the final four in 2023 in girls basketball and girls soccer, is attempting to become Northeast Florida's first FHSAA baseball champion since Bolles and Nease in 2017, and the first ever for Clay County. Past county finalists include Clay (2014), Fleming Island (2021) and Keystone Heights (1995 and 1996).
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: High school baseball 2023: St. Johns Country Day defeats Westminster
