ORANGE PARK - St. Johns Country Day School baseball coach Tom Lucas rolled the dice by slating his best pitcher, junior Brayden Harris, for the Class 1A state semifinal game, but the move may have been a disadvantage in the championship game as Harris had to watch from the dugout as his Spartans lost a 6-2 match against Canterbury High in Fort Myers on May 15.
"We had to win the first game, no question about it," said Lucas. "Once we decided to start him, we knew he could only throw 30 pitches if we were planning on pitching him in the second game. We did go in with a plan of scoring seven runs in the first inning or two, but that didn't happen. You got to win that game first, then roll the dice in the state final."
Lucas admitted that any team in the state Final Four is going to be good no matter what.
"Everyone is good there so you can't take the risk of not getting to the second game," said Lucas. "Canterbury probably had the better bats, but we still had to beat Brito."
Lucas, who has five Final Four finishes with his lone title, noted that his Spartans left 13 baserunners on the diamond.

"We just couldn't get them across and we couldn't risk taking Brayden out," said Lucas. "We lost senior Austin Stratman early in the season and we had our sophomores, Ethan Bissell and Madden Williams, stepping up and providing cover for us. Us getting to Final Fours consistently is a trademark of the program."
Harris, a recent winner of the Florida Dairy Farmers Class 1A baseball player of the year, was tasked to finish a 2-0 state semifinal win over Brito for the Spartans that took him to the pitches limit with 106 pitches against Brito; 5.2 innings with eight strikeouts.
Harris is on a list to be possibly be named Mr. Baseball for the Florida Dairy Farmers along with Rural player of year Bradley Garrett, a senior pitcher for Rural state champion Holmes County High who beat Lafayette Mayo 2-1; Aaron Watson, a senior pitcher for Class 2A runnerup Trinity Christian Academy; Charlie Wilcox, a senior pitcher for Class 3A runnerup South Walton High; Cooper Moss, a senior pitcher for 4A Final Four finisher Arnold High; Danny Machado, a senior shortstop for 5A region finalist Archbishop McCarthy; Zack Malvasio, a senior outfielder for 6A champion St. Thomas Aquinas, and Gio Rojas, a junior pitcher for 7A champion Stoneman Douglas.


Lucas was also selected as a Class 1A coach of the year candidate with his 26-9 record and state runnerup finish after winning the Dairy Farmer Class 2A Coach of the Year last year with his Spartans winning their first state title; also the first in Clay County.
Frank Turco, coach of Canterbury High, was selected as the Class 1A coach of the year and will be eligible for the Florida Coach of Year selection.
"I told Brayden that he was only the second guy to win that award for us (Brad Hodges)," said Lucas. "Brayden was pretty impressive, very dominant, and a workhorse. And he has a .391 batting average. For me, not winning the state title did not help my cause to win coach of the year."
Despite the setback, Harris retained his unbeaten record for the season; 11-0 for the 26-9 Spartans season, to earn the Class 1A award. Harris is slated to play at Florida State University after finishing at St. Johns and will bring a hefty stat package to Tallahassee. Harris had a best strikeout game of 18 whiffs against Covenant School of Jacksonville with nine games with more than 10 strikeouts. Harris struck out less than 10 batters in just four games.
"He had one strikeout listed against Lincoln but he was only in one inning in relief," said Lucas. "His best game was probably Neumann, who ironically lost to Canterbury in the region finals, and Creekside, a 7A region semifinalist. You can ask Clay coach Josh Persinger, he went seven against that region final team and won that game with 15 strikeouts against a very good batting team."


Note: FSU is currently playing in the NCAA Div. I National Championship Tournament with the Seminoles losing in the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals to University of North Carolina, but getting a bid as ninth seed into the NCAA tournament. The Seminoles are currently scheduled to play in the super regional in Oregon against No. 8 Oregon State with region wins over Bethune Cookman and two wins over Mississippi State.
Clay High grad Max Williams is a top hitter for the Seminoles as well.
For Harris, the season featured his hard throwing with a 0.55 earned runs average off 149 strikeouts and six earned runs against him and 23 walks. Harris also had a .391 batting average with nine doubles and one homer with 27 runs batted in.
Harris' 149 strikeouts was ranked ninth nationally with Lakeside of Alabama's Demetrius Hardnett whiffing 184 batters, and first in Florida; ahead of Moss (141), Watson (126), and Rojas (120), all mentioned above for class players of year, and in Class 1A, well ahead of runnerup Ethan Priest of Mount Dora Christian wiht 92.
"To be the best strikeout number amongst the guys behind him; all in higher classes, was impressive," said Lucas. "He was throwing a lot of strikes and controlling games."
For the dugout, Harris, said Lucas, is a leader by example.
"He's not rahrah guy, he gets locked in and just works really hard the whole way," said Lucas. "Brito was giving him some stuff from the dugout and he just stared them down. He's a dude."
Also selected per class as Florida Dairy Farmers baseball players of year nominees, in Class 6A, was Oakleaf High senior infielder J.P. Espinosa (.400 BA, 8 Doubles, 2HRs, 30 steals); in Class 4A, Clay High had two players; sophomore catcher J.C. Rosette (.404BA, 7 Doubles, 4 Tripls 15RBIs) and senior third baseman/pitcher Merrick Rapoza (.368BA, 6 Doubles, 6HRs, 25HRs); in Class 2A, from Keystone Heights, senior first baseman Austin Smith (.400BA, 10 doubles, 32RBIs).
For the coaches, with Lucas, are Clay High coach Josh Persinger (22-11, region finalist) and Keystone Heights coach Chris Roach (19-9, district title, region quarterfinals).