Strong pitching carries St. Thomas Aquinas to Florida Class 6A state baseball title

Jonathan Lopez throws five strong innings to pace the Raiders to the state crown

St. Thomas Aquinas celebrates after winning the Class 6A state baseball title with an 8-3 win against Buchholz. / Joe Frisaro

FORT MYERS, FLORIDA – The way St. Thomas Aquinas swings the bat, you’d think offense carried the Raiders to the Florida Class 6A state baseball championship at Hammond Stadium.

After all, the Raiders average 9.3 runs per game.

But with everything on the line on Saturday afternoon, it was the pitching that was the story for St. Thomas Aquinas.

Jonathan Lopez gave up three runs in five innings, and A.J. Lopez tossed two innings of scoreless relief to lead St. Thomas to an 8-3 victory against Buchholz.

St. Thomas entered the final four as the second seed, with Buchholz holding the No. 1 spot.

As the visitors, St. Thomas batted first, and the offense got rolling early, scoring three runs off Aidan Kastensmidt.

Jonathan Lopez got the rally started with a walk. But that capped a long at-bat, where Lopez fouled off numerous pitches. The pitch before the walk, Lopez belted a long drive down the right field line. Initially, it was believed to be a home run.

Lopez even circled the bases. But the umpires gathered, and ruled the ball was foul. On the next pitch, Lopez walked.

Zack Malavasio followed with a single to right, putting runners on first and third. Brady Buxbaum belted a long drive to left field that went for an RBI, ground rule double. Josh Jennings brought home a run with a groundout.

Buchholz countered with a two-run home run by JJ Gardner, trimming the Raiders’ lead to 3-2.

From that point, Lopez settled and held the Bobcats in check.

In the second inning, St. Thomas put three more runs on the board, and added another in the third to claim a 7-2 advantage.

Andrew Alvarez, Cole Lasher and Nico Sabatino all contributed key hits.

Buchholz was able to slow down the Raiders’ high-powered offense when Dion Wilburn entered in the third inning.

St. Thomas Aquinas’ defense also came up big. Sabatino in center field made one of the best catches in the state playoffs, diving while running back to snare Hudson Sapp’s long fly ball.

St. Thomas advanced to the championship on Saturday after a 15-0 mercy-rule win against Bloomingdale.

Buchholz won its semifinals game, 3-0, over Wharton.