For the second consecutive year, the Buchholz baseball team played for a state title.
Unfortunately, the result was the same for the Bobcats.
On Saturday afternoon at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, No. 2 seed St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale) scored six runs in the first two innings and defeated top-seed Buchholz, 8-3, to win the FHSAA Class 6A state title.
The Bobcats finished as state runners-up after defeating Wharton (Tampa), 3-0, in the state semifinals on Friday.
“We came into today with a lot of momentum,” said senior pitcher Wyatt Clarke, a Belmont Abbey signee who threw 2.2 innings of relief on Friday. “That team swung it well in the first inning and getting behind early isn’t easy to come back from so credit them.”
It was the fourth state title in program history for the Raiders (29-6-1), who denied the Bobcats (33-3) their first state championship.
“Congratulations to St. Thomas, they played a great game,” said Buchholz coach Ron Brooks. “Excellent at-bats by those guys, really good approaches. I didn’t think the biggest inning was the first inning when they put up three, I thought the second inning, where they put up three, was probably the biggest inning.”
St. Thomas Aquinas sent eight batters to the plate against Buchholz starting pitcher Aidan Kastensmidt and scored three runs on four hits and a walk.
USF commit Brady Buxbaum drove in the first run on a ground-rule double and he later scored on an RBI single by State College of Florida commit Andrew Alvarez, chasing Kastensmidt.
However, the Bobcats answered in the bottom of the first inning.
Senior catcher Kai So led off with a walk, and Jacksonville University signee J.J. Gardner crushed a ball over the left field fence to cut the deficit to 3-2.
“We came back,” Brooks said. “Big swing by J.J. there gets us back in the game.”
Instead, STA sent eight batters to the plate in the top of the second inning and scored three more runs on four hits and an error to take a 6-2 lead.
“Credit those guys,” Brooks said. “It seems like we were fighting uphill from there.”
Junior pitcher Cohen Lafler, who retired the only batter he faced in the first inning, gave up a two-run double to Raiders’ pitcher Jonathan Lopez and an RBI single to catcher Joshua Jennings before being pulled with two outs.
“Cohen has been great for us all year, really keeps teams off balance, I thought he would be good today,” Brooks said. “They stayed on a lot of pitches today. They really, really did, so credit them. Pitched a little bit backwards, pitched all different ways. They covered the plate extremely well, a really good offensive day for them.”
Junior pitcher Dion Wilburn kept the Bobcats in the game. He pitched five innings and allowed just two runs on just three hits with four walks and four strikeouts.
“He came in and really settled us down,” Brooks said. “He has a really good breaking ball. Velocity is pretty good, comes from a real over top arm slot so a little bit deceptive…I was really proud of his performance.”
Trailing 7-2, junior Blake Brewer singled to start the bottom of the fourth inning and Kastensmidt walked, putting two runners on with no outs, but the Bobcats were unable to score.
They were able to score their third and final run on an RBI single to right field by Brewer in the fifth.
“I really like our guys approaches, the way they kept battling, stayed together,” Brooks said. “It wasn’t our day, it was their day. Buchholz will have its day at some point, but it wasn’t today. I just want to thank our senior class…they’ve done everything we’ve asked. They’ve been great leaders. I don’t know the record that they’re leaving with but they’re dang sure leaving with a good one.”
Following back-to-back final four and state championship game appearances for the first time in program history, these seniors have set the bar high.
“Buchholz is going to keep chopping wood and we’re going to keep battling and one day that tree will fall,” Brooks said. “I’m really proud of our guys and the year we had. I’m just disappointed for our players that we couldn’t get it done today.”
