Parity baseball or mediocre at best
Perhaps Eminem said it best, “May I have your attention please !!!! May I have your attention please !!! Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? I repeat will the real Slim Shady please stand up? We’re going to have a problem here.”
Does anybody in District 5-5A want to stand up and take control of the district and hoist the trophy ? Half way through the district and only one game separates first through seventh place at the moment. 
District 5-5A
Bradford (4-3) (7-6)
Newberry (4-3) (7-4)
PK Yonge (4-3) (11-5)
Palatka (4-4) (8-8)
Santa Fe (3-4) (6-9)
Fort White (3-4) (5-8)
Keystone Heights (3-4) (6-8)
Some might say that is a strong district, others may say its a bunch of terrible baseball teams, while others may say its a bunch of mediocre teams. I ran a poll on twitter to get people’s thoughts on this.
Question of the day, a 7 team baseball district is separated by one game between first and last place. Is that mediocre baseball teams, bad baseball or a really tough district ?
— Corey Davis (@ByCoreyDavis) April 2, 2018
On paper, Gainesville PK Yonge (11-5) and Newberry (7-4) appear to be the two best teams but both have shown several signs of vulnerability losing games they shouldn’t.
PK Yonge started the season with nine straight wins including four straight district wins with wins over Newberry, Keystone, Fort White and Santa Fe; however a stunning loss on the road March 13 at Palatka started a three game district losing streak, which included losses to Santa Fe and Bradford.
Since a win March 10 over Oak Hall, the Blue Wave have gone 2-5, including going 1-2 during a Spring Break Panhandle trip last week.
Newberry hasn’t won two district games in a row following the win then loss formula so far halfway through the district part of the schedule.
Which is good news for everybody else like Bradford, Fort White, Keystone Heights, Santa Fe and Palatka which have all struggled to stay above the water or in this case over five hundred.
Regardless of what you think it makes for one exciting finish this last few weeks and its given all the above mentioned bottom dwellers a chance and a reason to keep playing for one of the two playoff spots in the district.
No respect
What head coach Tom Lucas has done at St. Johns Country Day can only be described as amazing and perhaps a miracle. Yet no matter what his Spartans do they are still are not getting the respect they deserve but Lucas is okay with that.
From 1977 to 1990, the Spartans missed the playoff just three times over that span and were a consistent small school power but fell apart for whatever reason with just two playoff appearances since in 1998 and 2013.
Along comes Lucas who guided the Spartans to a district runner-up finish last season and its 13th overall playoff appearance and has the Spartans potentially on the verge of its first district title since 1998.
A combination of an extremely difficult schedule, solid coaching staff and a team full of ball players has lead to the sudden turn around.
A schedule which features games against 8A Oakleaf, 8A Fleming Island, 6A Ridgeview and 6A Clay (3-3 in those games) along with playing in the Hall of Fame Classic in Fort Lauderdale this past weekend has the Spartans well prepared for the playoffs.
Walk off single in the bottom of the 8th by @TylerKuramoto32 scores @TroyMyers10. pic.twitter.com/kw1xVbpnot
— St Johns Baseball (@SJCDbaseball) March 29, 2018
They have also had their share of it moments as well none bigger than the walk off single in the bottom of the eight by Tyler Kuramoto in their second game of the Hall of Fame tournament last weekend.
Of course a team is nothing without players and the Spartans have plenty in Cody Myers, Troy Myers, Troy Britts and the rest of the Spartans.
Spartans win 2-1 in 8 innings over Westfield HS out of Virginia in the Florida League HS Invitational. Troy Britts goes all 8 innings striking out 9. Tyler Kuramoto goes 2 for 3 with double and walk off single in the 8th. Cody Myers added a double. @JustinBarneyTU
— St Johns Baseball (@SJCDbaseball) March 29, 2018
Spartans take down UC 4-2 tonight to improve to 7-2. @TroyBritts gets the W striking out 10 in 5.1. @_jackhodges gets the save. Big day at the plate for C Myers with 2 run HR to put Spartans up for good. @TylerKuramoto32 with 2 hits and 2B. #ALLIN
— St Johns Baseball (@SJCDbaseball) March 17, 2018
Big 7-2 win tonight over St Joes. @_jackhodges gets the win and goes 2-0 on the season. Troy Myers, Finn Howell and Tanner Zellem go 3-3. @TylerKuramoto32 hits double and @TroyBritts hits 2 run bomb and gets awarded the RBI chain. pic.twitter.com/t8zgkNfr7U
— St Johns Baseball (@SJCDbaseball) March 10, 2018
Bats come alive in 12-4 victory over Ridgeview today. Cody Myers with 2 run HR and also added double and 5 RBIs. Troy Myers with 2 more doubles and 3 RBIs. @TroyBritts with 7 Ks gets the win on the mound. Every player with an AB today got a hit. Great team win. #RBIchain pic.twitter.com/sylEzaXLGI
— St Johns Baseball (@SJCDbaseball) March 1, 2018
Great team win tonight. Beat Fleming Island 6-5. Tanner Zellem leads the way at the plate with two 2 run HRs. Cody Myers gets the walk off hit in bottom of 8th. Great pitching by Troy Britts, Brad Hodges and Jack Hodges. #ALLIN
— St Johns Baseball (@SJCDbaseball) February 21, 2018
St. Johns (9-5, 4-0) can clinch the top seed in the upcoming District 2-3A tournament with wins this week at home over Oak Hall tomorrow and nemesis University Christian (12-7, 4-1) on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Whats in store ?
This is a huge week for area baseball teams as with less than three weeks in the regular season teams make their final run to securing the top seed and getting ready for the playoffs. Several games this week will help decide some district.
Among the many huge showdowns this week are Mandarin (11-4, 2-0) and Sandalwood (10-4, 0-0), which will likely decide District 1-9A and the huge showdown between No. 5 Ridgeview (11-2, 4-0) and No. 3 Ponte Vedra (11-4, 4-0) which along with Clay will likely decide District the top seed in District 4-6A.
Ponte Vedra put their eight game winning streak on the line last weekend going 2-2 at the Florida High School Invitational at Seminole, while Ridgeview carries a nine game winning streak on the line and hasn’t lost in a month.
https://twitter.com/RHSPantherBB/status/979339791274790912
One thing is for sure one really solid team is going to miss the playoffs while two really good teams move on to the playoffs.
Last year the district ended in a three-way tie between Clay, Ridgeview and Ponte Vedra and Ridgeview coach John Sgromolo said he believe it also finished in three-way tie between the same three teams two years ago also.
According to Sgromolo the district has been won by Clay in 2015, Ridgeview in 2016 and Ponte Vedra in 2017, more evidence the district is evenly matched.
April 4, Wednesday
Ponte Vedra at Ridgeview, 4:30
April 5, Thursday
Sandalwood at Mandarin
Ridgeview at Ponte Vedra, 6:30
April 6, Friday
Mandarin at Sandalwood
