Mistakes and missed opportunities plagued Orangewood Christian in the FHSAA Class 1A state baseball final Saturday in Fort Myers.
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St. Johns Country Day took the title with a 6-2 victory, it’s second title in the last three years.
“That’s what it was,” Orangewood Christian coach Scott Hilinski said. “And then, of course, we made a couple of errors that were costly and good teams like that are going to capitalize on it. So today they were the better team and the better team won today.”
The Rams (27-4) committed three errors and left six runners in scoring position, while the Spartans (26-8) committed only one error.
Of course, SJCD pitcher Brayden Harris had something to say about the outcome, too. On one day of rest after Thursday’s semifinal, he struck out 10 batters and scattered four hits in a complete game.
“I think he had 45 pitches and he went a full game against us,” Hilinski said. “Man, that was gritty. You gotta tip your cap, man.”
From a big-picture standpoint, however, Orangewood improved on last season, in which the Rams fell in a state semifinal.
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“Obviously getting this far and not winning is tough, but these boys got nothing to be ashamed of,” Hilinski said. “We played hard.”
After SJCD put three runs on the board in the bottom of the third inning, Orangewood’s Aiden Balls got hit by a pitch leading off the fourth. Max Sakala hit a low liner down the right-field line for a double, moving Balls to third. Sam Lambert laid down a safety squeeze, deadening the ball in front of the plate and scoring Balls to trim the lead to 3-1.
“That’s kind of our brand of baseball,” Hilinski said. “We’re just trying to get guys over and steal some bases, you know, and if we get around with a bunt, we’ll take an out for that. We work on that stuff all the time, so that’s kind of expected from us.”
The Rams made it closer in the top of the sixth. Balls led off with another hit-by-pitch. He was lifted for pinch runner Jack Benson. Sakala moved Benson to second with a ground-out.
SJCD catcher Hunter Rodgers then attempted to pick off Benson at second, but the ball hit Benson and bounced into the outfield, letting him run to third for the Spartans’ only error. Tre Roach hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field, making it a 3-2 game.
But another three-run blitz by St. Johns in the bottom of the sixth proved too much to overcome. Harris struck out all three Rams in the top of the seventh to finish the game.
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