LAND O’ LAKES — Calvin Baisley has filled out 42 years’ worth of lineup cards. He has won more than 700 games. He has coached hundreds of players, some of them on to college, some of them on to the pros.
What he had never done, until this past weekend, was coach a state-tournament game.
That changed on May 9, when junior outfielder Cam Koston hit an RBI single, senior first baseman Yonder Alvarez crossed the plate, and a dog pile formed under a scoreboard reading 7-6.
With that — a 10-inning walk-off win over Sickles in the deciding game of a best-of-three regional final — Land O’ Lakes punched the program’s first ticket to the FHSAA Class 6A state tournament. Forty-two seasons in the making.
“It’s a lot of work, from the coaching staff to the players to all of it,” Baisley said, holding his emotions in check, as usual. “I think a lot of people don’t understand that. These kids commit year-round. This is fall baseball, this is all summer in the weight room. They make a huge commitment, and the fact that all that hard work has paid off — hats off to them.”
Land O’ Lakes (25-7) will face an opponent to be determined, at 10 a.m. May 15 at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.
Koston, mobbed by teammates moments after the hit that did it, struggled to find words.
“I can’t describe it,” he said. “To finally make the baseball state tournament, it’s incredible. To do it with these guys — I’m just excited to compete against some of the best teams in Fort Myers.”
Baisley has been to the state tournament before, just always as a fan supporting coaching friends. His own milestone win, No. 700, came less than three weeks ago, against Plant on April 24. Now he’ll get the trip too.
He won’t make it alone. His staff brings nearly 80 years of experience to the diamond: assistant Scot Wilcox, a former head coach at Mitchell for nine seasons, and Larry Beets, who coached 28 seasons at the former Ridgewood High and reached a state final.
That experience helped steady a team that didn’t look much like a state contender in March. The Gators opened 4-3. Then they won 10 straight, 17 of 19 into the postseason, and have yet to allow 100 runs all year.
The pitching staff carries a 1.82 ERA, led by senior ace Nick Schwartz (9-2, 1.03 ERA, 103 strikeouts). At the plate, the Gators are hitting .303 as a team, with their top four — Jose Leger, Ethan Barclay, Brody Marks and Jordan Scott — all above .300, combining for 87 RBIs and eight home runs.
Marks, a junior catcher who leads the team with 28 RBIs, hit a three-run homer in Game 2 of the regional final. Leger, a senior shortstop, drilled the game-tying homer in the 10th of Game 3 that set up Koston’s walk-off.
“We nearly start off with a losing record. We lose those early games, and we were probably one of the worst teams to coach at the beginning of the year,” Marks said. “It was real rough, so to come back and get a 10-game winning streak, multi-game winning streaks — it’s pretty nuts, because, honestly, getting to the state tournament wasn’t even a thought. We were just worried about winning at that point.”
Around that stretch, the staff called up freshman third baseman Donovan Barrios from junior varsity. He hit .306 with 15 RBIs on 22 hits and tightened up the infield corner.
“Hitting was a work in progress, but once we brought up DB, everything changed,” Baisley said. “They still put in the work, and hitting takes time. But bringing up that freshman really solidified our defense.”
Leger made several highlight plays at shortstop, the infield turned two double plays against Sickles (22-10) in the clincher, and on the first pitch of Game 1, left fielder Evan Harris crashed into the wall to make a catch.
Then there was the hacky sack.
After the slow start, the players picked up the game in the dugout — no gloves, no cleats, a legal version of pepper. Nobody planned it. It just stuck.
“I’m not sure how it happened, but it did,” said senior outfielder and pitcher Christian Vollstedt. “We’re OK at it — getting better. But it’s fun, we enjoy it, and it somehow brought us together.”
Together is how they’ll travel to Fort Myers.
“Yeah,” Vollstedt said with a grin, “I think we’ll be playing it down there, too.”