St. Thomas Aquinas’ prolific lineup propels it to first state baseball title since 2018
St. Thomas Aquinas held its graduation on Saturday afternoon.
But 15 of its seniors were unable to attend the ceremony.
They had a prior commitment on the Raiders’ baseball team, playing for a state championship 130 miles away at Hammond Stadium.
Those graduates still took a moment to don caps and gowns and take a graduation picture together.
The highlight for the Raiders came a little while earlier when they took part in their first dogpile of the season on the mound shortly after beating Gainesville Buchholz 8-3 in the Class 6A state championship game.
“We’ve been talking about that for months,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Joey Wardlow said. “It’s a big deal, your graduation. We had 15 seniors all contributing in so many ways. Their core memory from today isn’t only going to be the game, being together at the hotel, the traveling together, the dogpile, the win, the medals, the trophy.
“They missed their graduation, but I think they had a lot more fun here.”
Hard to dispute that after the way the Raiders played and hit during their two-day stay in Fort Myers.
Aquinas (29-6-1) followed an impressive 15-0 mercy-rule victory over Valrico Bloomingdale a day earlier with another early offensive barrage as it scored six runs in the first two innings and held off the Bobcats (33-3) for their first state title since 2018.
It was the Raiders’ fourth state championship overall - all with different coaches. Wardlow joined Ed Waters (1995), who is still on staff with Aquinas, Robert Lawson (2003) and Troy Cameron (2018) as coaches who have led the Raiders to state titles.
“We had a great message yesterday from Coach Lawson and Coach Cameron and Coach Waters is with us,” Wardlow said. “‘STA Pride’ is there in everything we do. We trusted in it and it worked in the end.
“The most exciting thing this whole weekend was standing at the back of the dugout and watching them dogpile. We had a rule. We didn’t dogpile until the end of the season and it was a long time coming.”
Zack Malvasio, Andrew Alvarez and Cole Lasher each had two hits while Josh Jennings had two RBI to lead Aquinas hitters.
Johnny Lopez also had a hit, two RBIs and walked twice.
But on the mound, Lopez was even more crucial.
After surrendering a two-run home run to JJ Gardner in the bottom of the first inning after Aquinas took a 3-0 lead in the top half, Lopez settled in and held Buchholz scoreless for the next three innings.
Lopez pitched five innings, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks and struck out three.
“I knew I just needed to trust my defense and give us a chance to win the game,” Lopez said. “Just fill it up and let them hit it. I knew if I could fill up the zone, I’d have a chance to win this game.”
Lopez’s faith in his defense was validated when center fielder Nico Sabatino chased down a deep fly ball to center in the second inning, which could have easily been a double, and made a diving catch.
“I pride myself in playing defense,” Sabatino said. “I go out and make those plays and that’s not anything out of the ordinary for me. I was confident I could get there.”
In the top of the second, Lopez smacked a two-run double that scored CJ Pangallo and Sabatino to extend the Raiders’ lead to 5-2. Jennings followed with an RBI single to make it 6-2 and already give Aquinas all the cushion it would need.
“When we get some runs, we only have to stack one or two at a time. We stuck to our plan and took advantage of mistakes,” Wardlow said. “We constantly talked this season about not panicking. We know what we can do in the game. Johnny gave us a bunch of innings and then we fell back on defense and that’s what we do.”
