St. Johns Country Day baseball team comes up short in championship game

A rough first inning was too much for the St. Johns Country Day baseball team to overcome.

Lakeland Christian did all of the damage it needed to early and denied the Spartans in a 5-2 win in the Class 2A championship game at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers on Saturday. The Vikings pushed four runs across with just one out in the opening frame. The Spartans never recovered.

Kody Daneault drove in both runs for St. Johns, but the Spartans couldn’t string much positive together. They pushed one run across on a single by Daneault in the bottom of the fifth, but a second runner was thrown out at home trying to score to end that inning.

The loss ended a record season for St. Johns and coach Tom Lucas. The Spartans won a program-record 26 games and played for their second title in three seasons.