Moments after his team split a two-game series with Trinity Christian on March 6, St. Johns Country Day catcher Hunter Rodgers gathered his teammates. The Spartans had rallied from a 6-1 deficit to take an 8-7 lead, but lost 10-8 for their first defeat of the season.
Captains in general and senior captains in particular just know the right time for the right message.
“Hunter got up and told them, ‘This doesn’t change anything. These are the two best teams in the state and both of us are going to win the state title,’” Spartans coach Tom Lucas said.
At the other end of the field, Conquerors coach Jon Murphy and his staff were similarly impressed with their opponent.
“We were thinking, ‘It’s going to be tough for anybody to beat them,’” Harris said.
Two-and-a-half months later, everybody would prove prophetic. A year after both teams lost in their respective state championship games, they were able to take the final step.
St. Johns Country Day (26-8) won the Class 1A title on May 16 with a 6-2 win over Orangewood Christian (Orlando area) for its second championship in three years.
Trinity Christian (27-8) won the Class 2A title on May 19 with an 8-4 win over True North Classical Academy (Miami) for its first title since 2015.
It is the first time since 2017 that two schools from Jacksonville or its bordering counties had won state titles (Bolles/Nease) in the same year.
A few days after their teams won state championships, I caught up with Lucas and Murphy to recap their seasons, what they liked best about coaching their teams this year and, amusing to me, their bus trips home from Fort Myers.
St. Johns: ‘Tough, gritty group’
The Spartans finished their game in the early afternoon and hit the road up Interstate 75.
“We had Morgan Wallen concert tickets for that night and so did about seven of our players so we had the charter bus route through Gainesville to drop us off at ‘The Swamp,’” Lucas said. “We got off the bus wearing our medals and went to the concert.”
The Spartans could enjoy the concert knowing they were the class of Class 1A, ending the season on a 10-game winning streak and outscoring Schoolhouse Prep (Miami) and Orangewood Christian a combined 11-2 in the final two rounds.
Florida State signee Brayden Harris threw 45 pitches in the semifinal win, which allowed Lucas to broach the idea of him pitching two days later in the final.
“Offensively, scoring early was the key to getting Brayden out early enough so that he could come back,” Lucas said. “He was being asked to do something he hadn’t done since he was probably 13 or 14 years old. In the championship game, he was already cramping up because of the heat and with the short recovery, he didn’t have his best stuff and it cost him some command and command of his secondary pitches, but he competed and battled and threw 80% fastballs and gave us everything he had.”
Harris threw the maximum allowed 105 pitches to finish the season with sparking numbers as a pitcher (12-2, 1.07 ERA, 165 strikeouts and only 19 walks in 85 innings). He also hit .400.
But there were standouts. Seven regulars batted, including Rodgers (.390/Jacksonville University signee), Preston Cole (.340, a junior committed to East Carolina) and Madden Williams (.337). Lucas said a key was getting consistent pitching from Gavin Coffey was 5-2 with a 1.47 ERA and six saves.
The Spartans were 6-2 in one-run games, including a 4-3 win over Trinity.
What did Lucas like best about coaching this group?
“They were a tough, gritty group,” he said. “We haven’t had a lot of teams here that talked about a state title before the season started and that was their main focus. … This team had a bad taste in their mouths from losing last year’s state title game and it was about redemption. They wanted to get back and finish.”
Trinity: North Carolina trip a turning point
The Conquerors had to wait out a lengthy rain delay before their title game. After the win …
“We got on the bus and the boys were rocking and had some music going,” Murphy said. “After our meal (in Fort Myers), everybody crashed a bit and we ended up driving through the night and got back to the school around 5:30 in the morning.”
It was another long road trip early in the season that served as a catalyst toward a state title.
Trinity went 2-2 at the USA Baseball National High School Invitational in Cary, N.C., on March 25-28. After that trip, it went 12-2.
“There were definitely some ups and downs,” Harris said. “The Cary trip is a test and a barometer because the competition is so good. We turned a corner there. On the offensive side, we struggled a little bit early in the year chasing home runs, but in Cary, you could see the buy-in of doing whatever it took to get on base and we were able to ride that through the rest of the year.”
Trinity won a 13-inning classic against Bishop Snyder in the district final and twice came back to beat Snyder in the best-of-3 regional final series after losing Game 1.
Among myriad Division I commits, I asked Harris about hitter Justin Martinez (headed to LSU) and pitcher Brennan Bachtell (headed to Daytona State College).
Martinez started the season 7 for 35 … and finished it 31 for 69. He hit 12 home runs and drove in 43 runs.
“Going into Cary, he hadn’t had the year he wanted to, but the way he was able to lock in was unbelievable,” Harris said. “He essentially carried us down the stretch (with six postseason homers). Every single one of them was meaningful.”
Bachtell went 9-1 with a 1.53 ERA and had a playoff no-hitter against Episcopal.
“We were trying to sort out the roles of our (pitching) staff and there were some games Brennan closed for us and then he excelled so much in a starter’s role because of the amount of strikes he threw,” Harris said. “We shifted him into the starter role because of his ability to generate weak contact.”
Alabama signee Gage Petrutz hit a team-best .372 and Virginia Tech signee Aiden Arnett hit .340.
What made this group so much fun for Harris to coach?
“Just the relationships,” he said. “Some of these guys, I’ve been with them in some form or fashion since they were 12 or 13 years old and to be able to form those relationships was definitely the fun part and I look forward to having that for the rest of our lives.”
Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com or on X at @ryanohalloran. Listen to Ryan on 1010AM on Tuesdays (6:35 p.m. on “Into The Night”), Thursdays (1:15 on “XL Primetime”) and Fridays (4-6 p.m. on “The Lead”).
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Baseball coaches recap winning state titles year after falling short
Reporting by Ryan O’Halloran, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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