American Heritage baseball team back in state final after walk-off victory
American Heritage’s baseball team is playing for a state championship again.
And if you ask the Patriots, they expected it to take everything they had to earn that right.
Heritage battled Panama City Beach Arnold until the bottom of the eighth inning on Monday night until Blayden Caballero roped a single to right field to score RJ Machado off Cooper Moss, resulting in a 3-2 walk-off win in a Class 4A state semifinal at Hammond Stadium.
It was Caballero’s second hit of the game and sent Heritage (28-6) to the state final for the third consecutive season.
“I saw (Moss) the whole time, it was my third at-bat against him,” Caballero said. “I knew what I had to do and that was to put the ball in play.”
What the Patriots didn’t expect was the opponent they will have to face when they vie for their second state title in three seasons and fourth overall on Tuesday night at 7.
Instead of facing seven-time state champion Tampa Jesuit for the third consecutive season in the final, Heritage will play upstart Mulberry, which eliminated Jesuit 3-2 in the other semifinal on Monday. Mulberry is playing in its first ever state final.
“The thing I like about Mulberry is someone told them they didn’t belong here and they proved they did,” American Heritage coach Bruce Aven said. “I love that. They come out and you don’t get the kid going to Florida or North Carolina, you get high school players that are grinders and want to prove something. They’re more dangerous than someone else.”
Arnold (27-8) had Heritage’s season in jeopardy multiple times on Monday, but left nine runners on base.
Many including Aven expected Moss, a senior righthander who has signed with the Florida Gators, to start Monday’s game. The Marlins went with another UF signee, lefty Eli Blair. But when he was removed from the game in the first inning after being attended to by team trainers, Moss took over. He pitched 7 ⅓ innings, struck out eight, walked three and allowed one run on five hits.
“I actually thought it was good for us to see Moss,” Aven said. “We prepared for him. I didn’t think we’d come with the lefty, but we have five lefties in our lineup. We thought this game would end just like it did.”
With one out in the eighth, Machado belted a double to deep left center. After Arnold intentionally walked Dylan Dubovik, there was some momentary confusion as to whether Moss had exceeded the state’s 105-pitch limit. Moss remained in the game to face Caballero, who didn’t waste any time and turned on the first pitch he saw, delivering the game-winning hit.
“The two pitchers who threw the majority of the innings deserve to be out there and the rest of the guys just battled,” Aven said. “We knew we’d have to play our butt off and that it would be a one-run ballgame. At the end of the day, we found a way to win the game.”
Heritage got its own gutsy effort from its pitchers.
Talan Holiday, a North Carolina signee who has been pitching again since the playoffs began after an injury-riddled season, threw 5 ⅓ innings, allowing two runs on six hits while striking out eight and walking two.
But Heritage is still playing thanks largely to a strong relief appearance by senior Caden Garro, who escaped a couple of tough spots and threw 2 ⅔ scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out four.
“For us, we love it because (Garro)’s a competitor and he went right after the hitters,” Aven said. “He attacked. He’s out there to compete. This is his first year on the mound and we put him on the big stage and he loves that excitement.”
