American Heritage captures second state baseball title in three years

The Patriots capitalized on a five-run second inning and defeated Mulberry for the Class 4A state title

American Heritage Plantation celebrates after winning Class 4A state baseball title against Mulberry / Joe Frisaro

FORT MYERS, FLORIDA – A season that started with such high expectations ended with another state championship for American Heritage Plantation.

Left-hander Mark Aleman tossed five shutout innings, and Chris Levy delivered a two-run single in a five-run second inning that helped vault American Heritage to a 6-1 win over Mulberry on Tuesday night for the Florida Class 4A state baseball championship at Hammond Stadium.

For the Patriots, the title was the second for the second in three seasons.

Heritage reached the state championship three consecutive years, but came up short in the title game a in 2024 against Jesuit Tampa. In 2023, Heritage defeated Jesuit for a state championship.

“I told the kids, these things don’t come as often as people think they do,” Heritage coach Bruce Aven said. “We won a state championship. We won a national championship and then we went a long period. I had teams in the top five in the country, several times. No. 1 in the country [and didn’t win a title]. But you’ve got to make the plays.”

Heritage (29-6) did do that on Tuesday in a five-run second inning that gave the Patriots a comfortable cushion. Sebastian Garavito going off Jaden (JJ) Sweeney with a single. Levy came through with a key two-run double.

The Patriots capitalized a wild pitch, and the big inning put Aleman in position to throw strikes and let his defense work for him.

Jordan Rich, one of the top players in South Florida, singled and used his speed to add another run in the third inning. Rich swiped second, and scored on RJ Machado’s sacrifice fly on a ball that wasn’t hit too deep into the outfield.

But Rich has blazing speed, and scored standing up.

Mulberry was able to hold down Heritage the remainder of the game with Griffin Cline tossing four innings of solid relief.

Machado, a senior leader, capped his prep career with an outstanding state playoffs. In Heritage’s 3-2 win in eight innings on Monday against Arnold, Machado doubled to deep left-center, and he scored the winning run on Blayden Caballero’s walk-off single.

Machado added two more hits in the title game, and came up big defensively.

In the seventh inning, Machado robbed Cole Bedenbaugh of a hit with a terrific back-hand stop and long throw to first base for the first out.

And the game ended with Mulberry’s Nic Partridge, one of the best players in Florida, lifted a foul pop up. Machado circled under it and made the catch that prompted Heritage’s on-field celebration.

“I’m definitely just grateful to be part of this team,” Machado said. “When that ball was just coming into my glove, what went though my mind was all the hard work, the extra hours, the early mornings, the late nights we were on the field, grinding.”

Even after falling behind by six runs through three innings, Mulberry (27-10) still had its chances to make it a game.

In the sixth inning, AJ Medina came though with an RBI single. But Mulberry made mistakes on the bases. On Medina’s run-scoring hit, a second run attempted to score but was thrown out trying to get back to third.

Mulberry also had the bases full with one out in the fifth inning, but couldn’t score. Aleman, on a 3-2 count, got a strikeout on a changeup, and the runner on first base was caught in a rundown for a strike-out, throw-out double play.

In the sixth inning, lefty reliever Santi Montiel recorded an out, and sophomore Enrique Santos worked 1 2/3 innings for the save.

After coming up short of the state crown a year ago, Heritage was motivated all season to reclaim the championship.

The Patriots were able to do so with an impressive showing in Fort Myers.

“The way last year ended,” Machado said. “We weren’t happy.”

The Patriots were all smiles on Tuesday night.