FORT MYERS – St. Johns County Day School baseball coach Tom Lucas emphasized mental toughness from the first day of preseason camp. He reminded them throughout the season, after easy wins and after tough losses, knowing more challenging moments were ahead.

Including the last three games of the postseason.

“I reminded them that at various points during the year, at some point, they are going to be down,” he said. “These teams are really good. They’re not going to lay down, and you’re going to have to fight for it to achieve the ultimate goal. Remember the situations when we probably fell short in previous seasons. There’s a lot of disappointment as a coach when mentally they didn’t handle it the right way. And so this team really embraced that.”

The Spartans (25-6) did more than embrace late-game challenges at Hammond Stadium. They thrived under pressure.

After giving up two runs in the seventh inning on Wednesday, May 22, to the Miami Christian Victors in the Class 2A state championship game, St. Johns broke the 3-3 tie in extra innings when Connor O’Steen dashed home on Gabriel Gilliland’s swinging strikeout and a wild pitch that got past the Victors catcher. The 4-3 victory was the perfect finale for many seniors, like O’Steen, who’ve been at the school since kindergarten.

“I don’t think I’ve ever won a game like that – definitely not one of that magnitude,” Lucas said.

Miami Christian has won three state championships in the last seven years. The Spartans' first title was also the first baseball championship in Clay County history.

Counting the region finals, St. Johns had three consecutive walk-off wins.

The Spartans got to the finals with a 5-4 win against St. Petersburg Northside Christian on May 20 on catcher George Gilson's two-run double in the bottom of the seventh.

“We had a bond where we felt comfortable in those situations,” said third baseman Seth Alford, who was selected as the tournament’s MVP. “We didn’t feel pressured. We were meant for this. This is what we worked for.

“When it came into play, we felt no pressure. I think that’s what really separated this team from others; we just battled. We had each other’s backs. We wanted to play for as long as we could.”

In the championship game, T.J. Sunderhaus singled and Hunter Rodgers hit on a bunt single in the eighth inning to put runners on the corners. O’Steen replaced Rodgers as a pinch runner. Sunderhaus was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on a passed ball and O’Steen advanced to third. He scored moments later when Gilliland swung at a third strike that bounced past the catcher.

“It’s crazy how baseball can be, how you can win a game,” catcher Gilson said. “It’s awesome because no one will remember the strikeout. They’ll just remember that you won State. I think it’s just a crazy, a crazy way to win – not on a hit or walk or something, but on a dropped third fastball.”

“The one thing about this team is we never gave up,” Alford said. “If we were down, we did not care at all.”

Junior southpaw Austin Stratman pitched the final five innings for the Spartans to earn the victory. He gave up seven hits and one earned run.

Alford had two hits and two RBIs in four at-bats to lead St. Johns.

“The main thing that he (Lucas) told our senior class this year was to make sure you leave a legacy,” Alford said. “This was all about the legacy. Leave it better than you found it.”