Top-ranked Tampa Jesuit scored four runs in the first three innings and held off a seventh-inning rally to eliminate Clay 5-2 in the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 4A baseball semifinals on May 19.
Clay baseball had recovered from a 9-13 start to advance to the final four at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.
Florida State commit Kaden Waechter hurled a three-hitter and struck out nine for Jesuit (27-6), which advanced to the May 20 title game.
Still, the Blue Devils (19-14) fought back, exploiting three seventh-inning errors to score Lukas Moore and bringing the tying run to the plate. But Waechter escaped, forcing Braden Phenneger to ground out to second to end the game.
Griffin Boesen went 2 for 3 with two doubles and three RBI for the Tigers, who scored two runs in the first inning and one each in the second and third. Jesuit’s Brady Marshall also went 2 for 3 with a double.
Florida commit Rylan McMahan, who pitched the first five innings for Clay, put the Blue Devils on the board in the fourth when his RBI single scored JC Rosette from second.
Clay was one game away from its deepest-ever run in FHSAA baseball playoffs. The Blue Devils previously reached the state final in 2014 but lost that time in Fort Myers, also to Tampa Jesuit and also by a 5-2 score.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Clay vs. Tampa Jesuit, FHSAA high school baseball semifinal