I’m a sucker for a good high school baseball game. I’m really a sucker for a well-executed suicide squeeze, mainly because you don’t see it anymore. Do MLB players even know how to bunt nowadays? I have no clue. Probably not.
Anyway, when you combine those two things — high school baseball and a squeeze — you’re going to grab my interest. Now, mix in the fact that this happened down in A) beautiful Florida, and B) in the state championship game, and this story is right in my wheelhouse.
It’s not often you see a bunt anymore. It’s really not often you see one with the bases loaded. And, it’s really really not often you see one with the bases loaded in a tie game to win the state championship.
Let’s head on over to Fort Myers and check in with South Walton High School:
TREVOR HOFFMAN, RYAN KLESKO TO MANAGE TOP HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL TALENT AT PERFECT GAME ALL-AMERICAN CLASSIC
This is pure, raw baseball
Absolute cinema. Perfection. 10/10. No notes. Hang it in the rafters. This is why high school baseball is the best. It’s like a throwback to when baseball used to be a gentleman’s game.
Now, it’s all just dingers and strikeouts. Launch angle and exit velo. Spin rates and RPMs. The art of base stealing and bunting is just in the toilet at this point. They’re relics. But not in high school.
YANKEES RELIEVER FERNANDO CRUZ MAKES DAZZLING SLIDING PLAY ON BUNT IN WIN VS RANGERS
Down here, it’s the Wild Wild West. You never know what you’re gonna see out of these kids. You never know what you’re gonna get. A suicide squeeze with the season on the line? It took some nuts, and the kid did it.
And how about the first base coach making sure this hero touched first before celebrating? Savvy move by him. Veteran move. Was he out of the base line just a tad? Maybe. Is that against the rules? No clue. I assume not, but I admittedly have no idea.
But I’m not going to harp on it. This is about a team pulling off a perfectly executed suicide squeeze to win a state championship in 2026.
Has there even been ONE squeeze bunt in Major League Baseball this season? Just one? Maybe the Rays. They seem to bunt a lot.
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But everyone else? Crickets.
It’s still alive in high school baseball, and it’s beautiful.