St. Thomas Drops 2-1 Heartbreaker In 7A State Semifinal

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When Troy Cameron took over as the skipper for his Alma mater, St. Thomas Aquinas, he set some lofty goals.

“I wanted to change the culture, and bring a certain brand of baseball back to St. Thomas,” Cameron said at the time.

On that front, it was mission accomplished, as the Raiders were as exciting a team as there was in Broward this season.

The second goal was to win a state title and return the Raiders to their past glory. That goal will have to wait until next year after the Raiders took a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Haines City in the state semifinal on Friday afternoon at jetBlue Park in Fort Myers.

St. Thomas came into the game confident that their one-two punch of Frank Rubio and Alec Byrd would be enough to bring home the state title. Rubio got the ball Friday, and he did not disappoint, going six-plus innings, working out of several jams along the way.

It was a tough first inning that set the tone Friday. Haines City, not having much in the way of power, showed how they advanced to the state tournament, using an aggressive brand of baseball both at the plate and on the bases. The aggressiveness forced the Raiders hand, and created an uncharacteristic four errors from the St. Thomas defense.

“Some guys when you look at them, you can tell they can run,” said Cameron. “Their first two guys, we looked at them, and with their body type we figured they could run. Seeing them, I was hoping we could keep them off the bases. When you’re playing in these state games, you do a lot of feeling the other team out in the first few innings. Unfortunately for us today, those guys got on base in the first and did some damage.”

The Hornets used a double steal and an RBI single by Dalton Scarborough to take the early 1-0 lead. The lead may have been more had it not been for Peter Nicoletto’s arm. The senior center-fielder threw out Keshawn Lynch trying to score on a fly ball to center.

“He’s been making plays like that all year,” said Rubio, of his teammate. “We’ve come to expect those types of plays, and he comes through all the time.”

After the first, Rubio settled in on the mound, while Raiders offense was having difficulty solving Mike Ogden, the Hornets starter.

Nicoletto was one of the few Raiders batters who had success against the right-hander. In the first, Nicoletto led off the inning with a double to left-center but was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple. Originally, Nicoletto appeared to be in safely at third but was tagged out when he slid by the base.

In the third, the Raiders evened the score at one when Will Arpin hit a two-out single, and Nicoletto followed with an RBI double.

From there, the offenses for both teams went stagnant.

In the top of the seventh, a pair of errors and a walk set the stage for Lynch to perfectly execute a suicide squeeze, giving Haines City a 2-1 lead.

After a walk loaded the bases, Kevin Balfour relieved Rubio and promptly struck out Kevin Cruz, keeping the score 2-1 and giving the Raiders one last shot.

Byrd led off the seventh with a walk. Two strikeouts and a ground ball to second later, and the Raiders dreams of a state title were dashed. While Cameron may someday soon look back on his first season as a success, all that stood out was a missed opportunity after Friday’s loss.

“It’s tough to look at it that way right now,” said Cameron. “I definitely felt like we had the team to win this year. We came in, my coaches and myself, demanding a lot from these guys. Just trying to change the way we play baseball, and instilling our style, and, I can’t be any prouder of these guys.”

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