Editor’s note: This is the fourth part of a summer series revisiting the best of “The Prep Zone Sports Show” at locally owned Sonic Drive-In of Gainesville, featuring interviews with area coaches and players with host Mike Ridaught from the 2025-26 seasons.
The Union County baseball team and head coach Jiwan James, the Florida Dairy Farmers Rural Coach of the Year, joined the weekly “The Prep Zone Sports Show” on Tuesday, May 26.
The Tigers (24-7) advanced to their first final four in 14 years and won their first state title since 2012. Union County beat Cottondale, 2-0, in a pitcher’s duel in the FHSAA Rural State Semifinals to secure their spot in the state championship game. In the title game, Union County scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to send the game into extra innings, then walked it off in the bottom of the eighth inning to win it, 10-9, against Trenton.
Below are excerpts from the May interview — edited for length and clarity — on The Prep Zone show. You can listen to the full conversation online.
Q: What was the key to winning a state championship in just your fourth season?
Head coach Jiwan James: A lot of trials and tribulations over the four years. I mean, my seniors have been there. My freshman class, they’re obviously going out as state champs, and it’s just been a lot of hard work over the last four years, and it finally paid off.
Q: Nine seniors on your roster this year, so you had to feel really good, especially for those guys, knowing it was their last go at it.
Jiwan James: Absolutely. It’s a great feeling sending them out on top. I’ve been telling them all year, you want to win your last game of the season. That’s the whole goal is to win the last one. They showed a lot of fight there at the end, and they refused to give up.
Q: It was another state championship for Union County. What’s it been like in Lake Butler?
Jiwan James: It’s been great. I mean, especially coming back and having the whole town lined up welcoming us back, a little tour around town and the whole school out front, walking through the hallways, everybody out congratulating us and stuff. It meant a lot to the town. It was huge.
Q: Coach James said he thought you were going to go CG (complete game) in the state semifinals. How did it feel getting out on the mound in a (MLB) stadium like that?
Eric Lasseter (SR): I was a little nervous before the game because it was my last time touching the mound, but I knew if I threw my game that we were gonna have a shot at the state title. So I went out there and just did what I needed to do to get my guys to the next game.
Q: Congratulations on your college commitment. How did you decide on Glenville State University (West Virginia)?
Eric Lasseter (SR): One of my mom’s friends, Joey Edge, knows the guy there, and he sent him some of my stuff and he really liked me. I went up there on a visit, swung the bat for him, and they really liked me. When I went up there, it felt like home and everything. I loved it.
Q: Tell us about the tough practices that you guys had to go through this year.
Kendall Carter (JR): Practices were rough. Coach Jiwan made sure that we were physically prepared for any type of situation that was thrown at us. [From]15-minute runs, 10-minute runs for practice, the polls after sprints, everything. You name it, we did it. It’s terrible.
Q: The Trenton game, what a wild game. Have you ever been a part of a game like that before?
Kendall Carter (JR): Other than regionals, no, sir. I’ve never been in that situation. I mean, I’ve been in a close game pitching and hitting and stuff like that, but nothing like that.
Q: You guys only had two hits in the semifinals and somehow found a way. What was that game like?
Wesley Crocket (SR): That game was rough. We could not get the bats going that game. If Mason (Moore) hadn’t come through with those hits, I mean, it could have been a whole different game. And Eric throwing like that, that’s what really saved us.
Q: Talk about coming to the plate there in the seventh (championship game), huge double right there. It helped you guys get back even.
Evan Christmas (SR): Yeah, I would say that was a very nerve-wracking at-bat for me. A lot of emotions going into it, but I just trusted the work that I put in throughout the year, and that’s all you can control. I was able to get my pitch with two strikes and do damage to the back side of the field.