Yost walk off propels Sickles to 6A region semifinal win
Sickles sophomore Jordan Yost jumps in celebration as his team rushes to congratulate him after his game-winning RBI hit.
By Mike Camunas, Creative Director
CITRUS PARK — Jordan Yost took a deep breath.
“My heart was beating a little bit,” the sophomore second baseman admitted.
Yost knew what was at stake — now here was the situation.
As Yost stood in the box, in the bottom of the seventh inning, with two outs and the bases loaded, Sickles, hosting Lennard in the Class 6A-Region 3 semifinal, was pitted in a 1-1 tie game.
“Ultimately,” Yost said, still slightly out of breath, “I was just trying to relax myself and take a few deep breaths. I was trying not to do too much and just put the ball in play and see what happens.”
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What happened next was pure pandemonium.
Yost singled to centerfield and drove home senior Connor Vance for the Gryphons’ walk-off 2-1 win over the Longhorns, which propels Sickles (27-2) to the region final.
Jordan Yost watches his RBI hit sail into center in the seventh.
The Gryphons will now host Gaither (22-6) on Tuesday evening at 7.
“These playoff games,” Yost said, “we know are going to be tough. It’s going to be a dog fight, and we just needed to keep battling and we did that tonight.
“That’s a great team over there, and we definitely had our hands full.”
Senior leadoff Connor Vance was 3-for-3 in the win with an RBI and scored the winning run on Yost’s walk-off.
Indeed, Lennard (18-10) put up a hell of a fight. In the Longhorns’ arguably best season in program history, and their first-ever regional semifinal appearance, they kept the high-scoring Gryphons off the board for most of the game.
Leaning heavily on senior starting pitcher Jack Mueller, Lennard saw the long-haired righty throw four innings of five-hit ball and strike out three.
Longhorns senior Jack Mueller allowed one unearned run in four innings of work, giving up five hits and struck out four.
The Longhorns even jumped out quick on Sickles starter, sophomore righty Brandon Gonzales, and grabbed an early 1-0 lead due to defensive miscues on the Gryphons part.
“We made a lot of mistakes tonight and this time of year you have to play as much mistake-free baseball as you can — that’s not what we did tonight,” Sickles coach Eric Luksis said. “But we grinded one out tonight. That’s a tough, gritty team over there in Lennard, and it was a very different game then it was last year when we played them.”
Gryphons sophomore starting pitcher Brandon Gonzales.
In 2022, en route to Sickles making the Class 6A state semifinals, the Gryphons and Longhorns squared off in the first round of regionals, in which Sickles blew out Lennard 11-0.
The Longhorns had different aspirations this season.
“They’re a great team — one of the better ones in the state,” Lennard coach Victor Martinez said. “I told the guys you still have to go out there and play the game and whatever happens, happens and what happened tonight, I’m extremely proud of them.
“Lennard opened in 2007, but we’re turning it around and becoming known as one of the better baseball schools in Hillsborough County,” Martinez continued. “So, this was a learning experience, and you have to fail a little bit to learn and we’re just going to build on this the best we can.”
Lennard took a 1-0 lead in the first thanks to a Joseph Rivera RBI double that scored Matt Counts. Sickles had its chances to tie, and even take the lead, thanks to getting baserunners to third in each of the first four innings, however, only plated one.
Longhorns senior Jojo Rivera (seen here after being hit by a pitch) drove in Lennard’s lone run with an RBI double.
That came from Vance driving home Luke Fikar in the bottom of the second.
“They had guys on all night,” Luksis said, “and we didn’t execute well on the bases tonight. We left a lot of guys on base all night and in the first four innings, we had a guy on third and only got one home. Can’t do that this late in the season.”
For the next five innings, the teams traded chances, with both teams seeing bases loaded opportunities and runners in scoring position, yet both teams would play sound defense.
Lennard senior shortstop Alex Brazer.
Sickles would get outs on a rundown, while in the middle infield, both Longhorns’ Trey Miranda and Alex Brazer at second base and shortstop, respectively, made crucial plays to keep the Gryphons from getting extra base hits.
“They fought the entire season and nothing was easy for them,” Martinez said. “That’s a great group of guys and they’ve earned everything this season and I’m extremely proud of them and how they fought until the end.”
Sickles kept the game tied in the top of the fourth thanks to a huge double play when Counts flew out to centerfielder Hayden Yost. Yost would then send a laser throw to catcher Justin Allen, who would tag out Brayden Nysted at home.
“That’s just how you write it up,” Allen said. “That’s how you practice – from the playbook. It was a great throw, but I honestly thought we would have to cut it off.
“But (Hayden) Yost had (the throw) humming.”
Sickles senior Justin Allen tags out a runner at the plate after a throw in from centerfielder Hayden Yost.
Gonzales would be lifted after two innings and striking out four and allowing two hits, while junior Cameron Guise would settle in for four innings of three-hit ball.
Fikar would pitch a shutdown seventh, striking out two and pick up the win.
But it was in the seventh, with reliever Carter Payne on the mound, that saw Jordan Yost in one of the biggest spots of his young high-school baseball career.
On a 2-2 count, with everyone in the Sickles’ dugout on their feet, and all the fans on the edge of their seats, the younger Host got the job done.
“I wouldn’t say I wasn’t nervous, because everyone was nervous, but I trust Yost — both of them,” Allen said. “We have to put all our trust in our teammates and, as a team, we do a very good job of that.
“And he did everything you could ask of him.”
Yost, for his part, trusted in himself.
“It was just like any other at bat up there, so I just took it one pitch at a time,” Hayden said. “I took a few more deep breaths, and I trusted in myself to get the job done.
“And it felt amazing to do so.”
⚾ Class 6A-Region 3 Semifinal ⚾
Sickles 2, Lennard 1
L 100|000|0 – |1|4|1
S 010|000|1 – |2|8|2
W – Fikar; L – Mueller
2B – Covey, Rivera (L). Records – L (18-10); S (27-2).
