Baseball: Columbia gets first playoff win since 2016 with 4-0 win over St. Augustine

LAKE CITY — In their third meeting in just more than three weeks, the St. Augustine Yellow Jackets' baseball team visited the Columbia Tigers on Tuesday in a game that outweighed the two previous meetings. 

With a trip to the regional semifinals on the line, the Yellow Jackets (17-9) sought their first win over Columbia, while the Tigers (20-8) looked to avoid complacency and being upset as the top seed in Region 1-Class 5A. 

"We discussed that yesterday at practice," Columbia head coach Chris Howard said. "That was a big concern that we were just going to lollypop around."

However, there was no "lollypopping" from the Tigers, who went on to shut out the Yellow Jackets 4-0 to advance into the regional semifinal.

Truitt Todd tosses one-hit gem

After a rocky outing last week against Ridgeview in the district semifinal game, Howard gave senior Truitt Todd the nod on Tuesday night with an opportunity to rebound against St. Augustine. 

"He's our guy right now," Howard said of Todd. "We just felt like Truitt was our guy."

And Todd lived up to the expectations on Tuesday as the senior tallied a season-high nine strikeouts while also tossing a one-hitter for the first time this season. 

Todd, with his stout field behind him, forced a trio of "three up, three down" innings against St. Augustine, which kept his pitch-count low and nearly allowed him to go the distance against the Yellow Jackets. 

The Yellow Jackets would get find some momentum in the top of the sixth as a pair of errors and a walk would load the bases for St. Augustine, which sparked a mound visit. 

"This is the tough part we talked about," Columbia assistant coach Joey Edge told Todd, who eventually got out of the inning unscathed. 

Todd was eventually relieved by sophomore Philip Maddox, who got the last out of the game to polish off the Yellow Jackets. 

"We're going to ride him 'til we die, I guess," Howard said of Todd. 

Big night for Brayden Thomas 

Columbia junior Brayden Thomas' big game started in the batter's box and ended in the field.

In their first at-bat, the Tigers jumped on the Yellow Jackets' ace, senior Luke Hayes, early as Columbia led off with a walk from junior Matt Dumas (0-2, walk), followed by a single off the bat of senior Chandler Howard (2-3). 

Columbia went on to collect a pair of outs as both Dumas and Howard advanced, plating two runners in scoring position for Thomas, who delivered a two-out, two-RBI single into right field to scratch across a pair of runs for the Tigers. 

While that might've been Thomas' only hit on Tuesday night, it wasn't his only big play. 

When St. Augustine loaded the bases in the top of the sixth, Thomas collected a grounder and made the throw to first to keep the Yellow Jackets off the board. 

"Big two-out hit by Brayden Thomas," Howard said. "Also the play from Brayden Thomas with the bases loaded... unbelievable. Major-league stuff."

Tigers look ahead at first postseason run since 2016

With its win on Tuesday, Columbia collected its 20th win of the season. 

"That's huge," said Howard, in his first season at Columbia. "If you would've told me when I took this job that we were gonna win 20 games, I would've said you were crazy. But it's been a blessing."

The Tigers' 20th win just so happened to be their first playoff win since the 2015-16 season, when the Tigers beat Nease 13-4 before falling to Creekside 7-0 in the next round. 

But this season is slated to be different for Columbia, which maintains hosting rights as the top seed. The Tigers are set to host fifth-seeded Mosley in the region semifinal on Thursday at 7 p.m.