Mark Aleman tossed five shutout innings to propel American Heritage to the Class 4A state baseball championship with a 6-1 victory over Mulberry on Tuesday night at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers.
Aleman (10-1) allowed just two hits and striking out five against the Panthers (27-10), who had upset defending state champion Tampa Jesuit 3-2 in the semifinals.
“The coaching staff, my catcher, and my defense make it so easy to trust yourself,” said Aleman, who is headed to Barry University. “I just throw the ball down the middle and let my teammates take care of it. We wanted the revenge 100 percent, but Tampa Jesuit lost to Mulberry. We still kept our heads down and still played with a chip on our shoulder.”
The Patriots, who have won the title in two of the past three years, struck for five runs in the bottom of the second when Sebastian Garavito lined a single to right, Zach Wilson followed with a walk, and Hayden Harrison was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Chris Levy singled to center to score Garavito and Wilson for a 2-0 lead. Jordan Rich followed with a single and stole second as the catcher’s throw sailed into center field, extending the lead to 4-0. Machado hit a sac fly for a 5-0 lead and finished the game going 2 for 3 with an RBI.
“Honestly, it is all about the hard work we put in during the summer,” said Machado by phone. He is committed to McLennan Community College (Texas). “Since Day 1, every single player on this roster was committed to winning a state championship. We were as hungry as you could be. Being just one step away (last year) from going back-to-back broke our hearts. We were in the same place, just a different result.”
The Patriots extended the lead to 6-0 in the third with three straight singles to lead off the inning and a wild pitch, which scored Blayden Caballero. Mulberry scored its run in the bottom of the sixth, but hardly threatened.
American Heritage baseball coach Bruce Aven said what made it even more special was that he and his son Kolbe, who played four seasons at Nova Southeastern University and came back to coach the Patriots this season, were able to win a state championship together.
“We were finally able to take that photo together,” Aven said by phone. “We had a lot of great players on the 2020 team, and he and the others were robbed of a state title that year. It was a proud-dad moment.”
The team was off to an 8-0 start before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the 2020 season.
American Heritage (29-6), who finished the year on a 14-game winning streak, became the third Broward County team to bring home a state baseball championship in the past four days.
“I am just so proud of these kids,” Aven added. “Their attitude was unbelievable. I am disappointed that it is over.”
Over the weekend, Stoneman Douglas won a state-record fifth straight, and sixth overall, in capturing the Class 7A title, while St. Thomas Aquinas also won their fourth state championship in school history in winning the Class 6A title.
St. Andrew’s edged in 2A semifinal
When St. Andrew’s baseball coach Joseph Housey took over the program this season, he wasn’t sure what to expect.
What he got was a team that won a school-record 22 games and reached the state semifinals for the first time. Unfortunately for the Scots, that’s where the season ended as Orlando First Academy rallied to escape with a 3-2 victory in the Class 2A state semifinals at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers on Tuesday afternoon.
Carter Derks was 2 for 3 with a run scored, and Harrison Hansen, who was a courtesy runner for Michael Tight, came around to score on a two-base error as the Scots (22-7) grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.
The Royals (29-4) took the 3-2 lead in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Roy Rodriguez and a two-run double by Kinon Bastian.
The Royals’ Kyle Hopper went six innings and scattered five hits, and struck out nine in a winning effort. Blake Fields tossed a scoreless seventh for the save. Coy Allman, Aaron Tralongo and Tight also had a hit for the Scots.
“I think as a whole, this season was special because of the place that a majority of this team came from,” said Housey, who took over a team that finished 8-10-1 last season and had just one winning season in the past 13 years. “They had gotten used to losing…I have been fortunate to be a part of some successful programs at Nova High School with the legendary Pat McQuaid and then at the University of Oregon with George Horton.
“Win or lose, today was really great,” Housey added. “We played a Top-15 nationally ranked team, and we were not out of place. We could have gone sideways after the 1-3 start, but they started to turn the season around with some big wins. I didn’t know what to expect from them. I knew we had some kids that were going to college, and everyone bought into the culture, and we set a good foundation for years to come.”
