FLEMING ISLAND - Last year, the big baseball game between St. Johns Country Day School and Fleming Island high schools looked to be a pitchers’ battle with 11 strikeouts in the first two innings between Brad Hodges for the Spartans and Cody Carwile for the Golden Eagles.

Now, with Carwile powering his way on the mound at Georgia Tech University (4Ks in 17-7 win over Presbyterian), Hodges is back to exact a bit of revenge from the 5-3 loss as the Spartans have sprinted to a one loss (5-1) record out of the gates with a close 8-7 loss to Georgia’s top-ranked 8A team, Buford, last week. Buford featured the Gatorade Georgia Baseball Player of the Year 2021 on the mound.

Hodges has been on fire on the mound and at bat while the Golden Eagles have use their two Jacksonville University commits; Isaac Williams and Divine Valle, to answer for a severe loss on the mound off last year’s 6A runnerup squad.

St. Johns, the 2A runnerup, returns the bulk of their finals team with the talents of Hodges, Finn Howell, Jordan Taylor still bouncing in the dugout for coach Tom Lucas. Lucas has upped the ante schedule wise for his Spartans with a ton of high-caliber teams on the docket, including a recent road trip to Georgia.

Fleming Island, with coach Grant Bigilin kind of juggling his lineup to find the sweet spot, has senior Abram Summers as his go-to guy in the infield and in the batters box with Anders Chadwell stepping in with key hits for the Golden Eagles 2-3 record.