High School Baseball: Lakeland Christian wins 2nd state title in five years

FORT MYERS — Clouds hovered upon Hammond Stadium as thunder and lightning were about to sweep the area with inclement weather, giving the officials of the Class 2A 2023 FHSAA Baseball State Championships a reason to delay the ballgame until further notice.

But that didn’t matter.

Lakeland Christian players mobbed each other on the mound, careening out of control. Viking baseball head coach Matt Diaz had water poured on him because the Vikings all season portended destiny.

It was the perfect time for No. 2 seed Lakeland Christian to win its second state championship in school history thanks to a 5-2 win over No. 1 seed St. Johns Country Day ― the No. 1 team in the state. Lakeland Christian won the state title in 2019, which was the first year a state title was won by a Polk baseball team since 1995 when Santa Fe Catholic won. Lakeland Christian head coach Matt Diaz as a sophomore was the starting catcher on that team.

Since Diaz, who would go on to play ball at Florida State and the Major League for 10 years, didn’t start head coaching Lakeland Christian until the COVID-19 year, 2020, missing the first state title by a year as a head coach, it was a feeling of pure euphoria to see those student-athletes he has been in wars with to finally hoist the 2A state title.

“I’m ecstatic for our players. They earned this one,” Diaz said. “They had a rough start to the season. We were (two) wins and (three) losses, but they bought into the process. We as a coaching staff thought they were capable of doing this from the very beginning. And then when they started to buy in, things really started to click. So, our players, I’m really happy for them, especially our seniors. They led not only on the field, but some of them didn’t have the ideal seasons they wanted, but they were still leaders in the dugout. Proud of them, excited for them as they head into the next chapter of life, and just so happy for our players.”

The process of beginning to be on cloud nine transpired in the very first inning thanks to a four-run inning for the Vikings: Junior outfielder Zachary Lester walked in a run and brought in right fielder Trey Bentley, infielder Daniel Hartley scored on a wild pitch thrown by St. John’s starting pitcher Hunter Rodgers and infielder Wyatt Jenkins singled on a hard groundball to center field, which scored outfielder Jaxson Peacock and Lester to make the score 4-0 Lakeland Christian.

Lakeland Christian put its stamp on the game in the top of the fifth when utility player Colby Brewington tripled on a shot to right field, bringing home Lester once again.

St. Johns was able to score two runs later in the game thanks to the dealing of starting pitcher Carson Martin, who struck out two, walked just one and gave up just one earned run in five innings. Reliever Anthony Schatz walked just two, gave up an earned run and one hit in 1 1/3 innings of work and Jenkins came in the last inning and allowed no earned runs and no walks in 2/3 innings of action.

“We gave the ball to our sophomore, Carson Martin, who knows how to pitch with a lead. He was just throwing strikes (and) we were making some plays behind him,” Diaz said. “And that’s why we wanted to pitch him. We wanted them to beat us with their bats and not give up any free bases, and Carson certainly did that. We ended up closing the game with Wyatt Jenkins. It came down to the last two outs. They had the tying run at the game a couple different times, and we were able to make a couple plays behind Wyatt and get out of there with a state championship.”

Hitting-wise, the Vikings posted four hits, which was all they needed thanks to the solid pitching. Hartley was for 1-for-3 with a walk.

Senior Mack Estrada, who last pitched in the district championship clincher and will be attending USF in the future, said he is thrilled to be a part of this championship team.

“I now know what winning at the end of a season feels like so I would want to do the same in Omaha and further in the World Series. No better feeling,” Estrada said.

Still, it’s all about the process. Yes, it is true the team isn’t devoid of individual talent. But it took the plays of some of the best players in the nation making sacrifices: In the very first inning, Florida State commit Mitchell Rodriguez laid down a sacrifice bunt, which led to four runs for the program.

Going through the proverbial fire early on prepared the team, as the Vikings went through a gauntlet of talent, which culminated in Lakeland Christian starting out 2-3 thanks to playing the likes of IMG Academy, Calvary Christian (Clearwater) and Jesuit. And in the end, the Vikings were 25-5 ― the fourth season in five campaigns of 20 wins or more.

“We ended our season thinking we can play with anybody. And St. Johns is certainly an incredible team, but without being battle-tested early on, I don’t know if we step on the field with the confidence that we had (and) obviously it paid off,” Diaz said.

Lakeland Christian players had the confidence to sing “We are the Champions” as the championship bus rolled two hours back to Lakeland where they would eventually be greeted by friends, parents and alumni. With the season ending in perfect fashion, next on the agenda is to have a team championship dinner.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland Christian wins 2nd state title in five years