ORANGE PARK — St. Johns Country Day School pitcher Brayden Harris struck out 17 batters while firing a one-hitter to carry the host Spartans to the FHSAA District 4-1A championship with a 10-0 win over St. Joseph Academy on April 16.

In district 3-4A, Clay High got a 15-strikeout effort from Rylan McMahan and a final closing whiff from relief hurler Braden Phenneger to beat Baker County 6-0 to win their second district title in a row.

In district 3-5A, Fleming Island gave up a grand slam homer in the first inning then held court with Columbia before losing 6-2 in that district final.

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Region playoff selections (released FHSAA Monday, April 20)

Region 1-1A: No. 1 St. Johns Country Day (19-8) will host No. 8 Rocky Bayou (14-8), Saturday, April 25, at 7 p.m.

Region 1-4A: No. 3 Clay (14-13) will host No. 6 Wakulla (13-13), Friday, April 24, at 7 p.m.

Region 1-6A: No. 6 Oakleaf (12-14) will travel to No. 3 Bartram Trail (16-10), Friday, April 24, at 7 p.m.

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Out at St. Johns Country Day School, after a three-homer batting day by Harris in the Spartans' 13-3 semifinal win over Christ's Church Academy, Harris, who is committed to play for Florida State University next spring, was dominant, overpowering the St. Joseph Academy Flashes with a fastball that consistently reached 92 miles per hour and occasionally hit 93 and 94. Harris relied on his slider and a changeup— a pitch he added to his repertoire this season— to record the strikeouts. The senior righthander did not issue a single walk and only two Flashes put the ball in play. St. Joseph clean-up hitter Carlos Willis lined a single into right center field in the second inning for the Flashes’ only hit, and Ryan Wade was thrown out trying to bunt his way on in the fifth.

“Brayden was on tonight,” SJCD head coach Tom Lucas said. “It was a lot of sliders. He has really elite command on that and can locate it down and away. Their first few guys can catch up to 93 [m.p.h.], so we were going to pitch them that way.”

Harris fanned 10 consecutive batters between the second and fifth innings.
St. Johns Country Day managed only five hits themselves but took advantage of 15 walks and three hit batsmen to turn the game into a rout. Harris scored the only run the Spartans would need in the third inning, fouling off two pitches with two strikes before drawing a walk. After advancing to second base on a bunt by Hunter Rodgers, who was safe at first on a fielder’s choice, Harris crossed the plate when Preston Cole and Jonas Wells drew consecutive walks from Flashes starter Cuyler Walls.

The Spartans tallied two more runs in the fourth when Gavin Coffey and Hudson Dantzler drew free passes ahead of a single by Hudson’s cousin, Chandler Dantzler. Harris then drew a walk to score Coffey and Hudson scampered home on a sacrifice fly to the left by Rodgers.

St. Johns broke the game open in the fifth, tacking on five runs on two hits. Hudson delivered the big blow with the bases loaded, doubling to the base of the center field wall to drive in two runs. Harris then lofted a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Evan Sproull, and two batters later Cole walked to force in another run.

“Tonight we proved that we can get to 10 runs without hitting a home run,” said Lucas, who has every Spartans batter practice bunting. “We will win any way we can.”

The first three batters in the Spartans’ lineup— Harris, Rodgers and Cole— each drove in two runs while combining for only one hit. The bottom of the order set the table with the Dantzler cousins and Coffey reaching base a combined eight times and scoring two runs apiece. Lucas noted how much Coffey, who went 1 for 2 with two runs scored and two stolen bases, had improved after the game.

“This year he went from being one of our guys who only pitched to someone who started to put together really good at-bats, so he actually earned that starting role offensively because he has been so good,” Lucas said of Coffey, a junior who sat out last season with an injury. “He has the power to hit it out, but he has team at-bats and will do the little things. He is one of our top arms, too.”

St. Johns, which has reached the Class 1A state title game in three of the last four years and won the title in 2024, will host a regional quarterfinal on Saturday, April 25 against Rocky Bayou Christian. With the lengthy layoff, Lucas said that the Spartans (19-8) would scrimmage Tuesday and Wednesday, pitting their position players against their top pitchers, in order to stay sharp. He was pleased with the district championship and the win over the Flashes.

“The one time we won the state championship (2024), St. Joseph beat us for the district championship and it just kind of left a bad taste in our mouth," Lucas said. “So, we were going to put a lot of emphasis on this one. Getting a trophy, getting to put a stamp on our wall, getting a banner, those things are big.”

Walls allowed only two hits while pitching into the fourth inning for St. Jospeh Academy, but eight walks proved to be his undoing. The Flashes, now 19-6-1 and ranked sixth in Maxpreps.com’s Florida FHSAA Class 1A rankings entering the game, will almost assuredly receive an at-large bid to the regional.

Out at Clay High, McMahan controlled the game from the mound and the Blue Devils' defense aided him with a double play in both the first and second inning.

"We know when we stick to fundamentals and do our jobs, we have the best chance to win," said Clay coach Josh Persinger. "The last two weeks, we have seen the best teams in Florida, and we learned about how much impact small mistakes have on the outcome."

Persinger referenced a final spurt of games that included two with St. Johns Country Day School and two with Trinity Christian Academy.

"We knew putting the schedule together with those teams at the end would reveal our character a bit," Persinger said. "I told them to learn from it, it stinks for a day or two, but, in the end, it helps."

In the third, a double from JC Rosette got the Blue Devils on the scoreboard with a burst of confidence after back-to-back singles from Tyler Gunsaulus and Caden Looney.

Logan Moore would single in the second run with Clay now up 2-0.
In the fourth, a single from Hickey, a nifty sacrifice bunt from Wyatt Rapoza and walk to Ethan Mathis set up a Looney RBI single to 3-0. Rosette again came up with a big hit with a 2-RBI single before a walk to McMahan got the score to 6-0.

For Fleming Island, the grand slam off starter Ocean Bland woke up the Fleming Island dugout for four innings with the Golden Eagles' "bend don't break" defense holding the vaunted Columbia bats to no runs. Fleming Island would get baserunners in play in the second and fifth with a balk putting the score at 4-1 in the fifth after Danny Rottino hit by pitch and Jacob Bowden walked.

Columbia struck again on Bland with two walks getting runners on base with a sacrifice fly to centerfield getting a 6-1 score. Fleming Island got two more baserunners in sixth: a single by Eli Sevilla and Connor Massey hit by a pitch before Landon Reilly hit a grounder to score Donaldson before Rottino struck out to end the inning.

With momentum still percolating in the Fleming Island dugout, senior Caden Swartz nearly turned the table over with a long triple to centerfield, but Tucker Fordham grounded out to end the game.

In other district tournament finishes, Keystone Heights finishes at 8-17 with a tournament win over Interlachen, 11-9, then an 11-1 loss to Trinity Catholic.
Orange Park got an 18 out effort on the mound from Yaziel Del Valle but fell 2-1 to Ponte Vedra. Orange Park had the game tied 1-1 in the fifth. Ponte Vedra beat Orange Park 9-4 earlier in the season. Middleburg lost a 4-1 semifinal to Fleming Island in that district with Columbia beating Ridgeview, 4-0, in the other semifinal.

Oakleaf, in district 2-6A, lost a tough 4-3 semifinal to Ocala Forest. Oakleaf got 11 strikeouts from Jeremiah Renaldo in the loss. Forest won with four runs in the seventh inning while Renaldo hit with three singles and one batter hit by pitch.

Oakleaf playmaker Jeter Farina scored off an alert play after walking then getting to third off an Evan Brown single. Brown and Farina executed a double steal to get Farina home.