The St. Johns Country Day baseball team came up short in its back-to-back quest.
Canterbury jumped on the Spartans early and denied their attempt at a repeat in a 6-2 win in the Class 1A state championship game Thursday night in Fort Myers. St. Johns finished its season at 26-9 and finished state runner-up for the third time in program history (2021, ’23).
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Offensive issues plagued St. Johns during its two games in the state series round. One day after scratching out just two hits in a 2-0 semifinal win over Brito Miami Private, the Spartans struggled again offensively.
Brayden Harris had a single up the middle in the bottom of the first, but St. Johns wouldn’t threaten again until the bottom of the fifth. The Spartans loaded the bases with no outs, but the Cougars got a strikeout, had a Harris sac fly push in a run and then a whiff to end the threat. Harris’ sac fly was St. Johns’ hardest hit ball of the game and came probably 10 feet from going over the left-field wall. Harris had a couple hits. Nick Bowden drove in the final run in the seventh.
Miscues hurt, too. A wild pitch in the first inning helped set up a Cougars run. An error on a stolen base pushed a run in an inning later. The Spartans also had a runner thrown out in a rundown and a hard line out to the second baseman in the bottom of the fourth led to a double play.
