LAKELAND — Gavin Steadman attended Montverde Academy for the first two months of the school year before realizing it wasn’t right for him, and he returned to Santa Fe Catholic for his junior season.
Santa Fe certainly is glad he came back. Lakeland Christian? Not so much.
Steadman took a one-hitter into the sixth inning on Thursday night as Santa Fe upset top-seeded Lakeland Christian, 5-1, in the championship game of the Class 2A, District 8 tournament.
The Crimson Hawks’ victory broke an eight-game losing streak to LCS, dating to April 13, 2018, and gave Santa Fe coach David Saliba his 799th career win. It also extended their winning streak to 10 games.
DISTRICT FINALS: Check in here to see who won district titles in softball and baseball
“It feels good,” Steadman said. “I’ve wanted (to beat) that team since my freshman year, and I got it tonight.”
Steadman, who is one of the top pitchers in the county, knew this was going to be different than when he faced the Vikings in late February and allowed seven runs on seven hits, including two home runs.
“I felt good,” he said. “This past game they hit OK off me, but this game I just knew it was a home field advantage. They don’t have a 260-foot fence. They can’t hit their home runs that they usually do. So I just threw my stuff and had confidence in all my stuff, and it worked very well.”
Steadman allowed a two-out single to Colby Brewington in the first inning then did not allow another hit until Gavin Byrd’s two-out single in the sixth inning.
“I knew as soon as I started throwing that it was going to be a good day,” Steadman said.
Steadman used a 12-6 curveball, his always reliable slider and a two-seam fastball inside to keep the Vikings off balance.
“He started off really good,” catcher Marvin Montenegro said. “He progressed better throughout the game. That’s usually how he is, and I had full trust in him.
LCS (21-4) tried to rally in the seventh when Mitch Rodriguez singled, and Diego Colon walked. The Vikings had runners on first and third after the Crimson Hawks didn’t get the call at first base on a double-play attempt, but Steadman struck out the final two batters to finish a three-hitter. He finished with six strikeouts.
Steadman who also is batting .322, improved to 9-1 with a 1.73 ERA. His ERA since his first outing against LCS is just 0.93. This is second straight win against one of the top teams in the county. He beat McKeel last week when he retired 20 consecutive batters. He continued that kind of effort against LCS.
“We gave him a lead, and that’s what we needed to do,” Saliba said. “You give him a lead, and he’s tough."
Santa Fe Catholic (21-5) got that lead when Easton Beach drew a leadoff walk in the third inning and later scored on a wild pitch. Junior Hudson Link blasted a two-run homer in the fourth inning, his first of the season, to make it 3-0.
Beach ripped a two-out double in the sixth inning and later scored again on a wild pitch to make it 5-0.
“We thought we could win because we were ahead of them the first two games (in the regular season), both games in the sixth inning, and ended up letting them off,” Saliba said. “Our attitude tonight was we weren’t got to let them back in it if we got the lead.”
Roy Fuoco can be reached at roy.fuoco@theledger.com.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Santa Fe Catholic baseball well-armed against Lakeland Christian in district title game
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