American Heritage Rallies To Beat Florida Christian To Reach State

American Heritage plays pile on each other in celebration following the Stallions’ 5-4 win.

American Heritage rallied for two runs in the top of the seventh Friday to defeat host Florida Christian 5-4 in a Class 3A regional final.

The Stallions (21-7) advance to play St. Petersburg Catholic in a state semifinal May 23 in Port St. Lucie. St. Petersburg defeated King’s Academy 3-2 in 10 innings in another regional final. Heritage, seeking its first state title, is making its first trip to the state final four since 2007.

Heritage rode the strong pitching performance of Dylan Silva, who struck out nine and was in a pitchers’ duel with Florida Christian starter Jake Molkentin. Silva gave way to Josh Glick in the sixth, and Glick held on to earn the win.

“From the wind-up tonight in the beginning, [Silva] was dominating,” Heritage coach Carm Mazza said. “He was very tough. He had his breaking ball he threw for a change-up. He was excellent. If he can give us that, we’re in good shape.”

Dylan Silva pitched five strong innings for Heritage, striking out nine.

With Florida Christian ahead 4-3 in the top of the seventh, Heritage’s Jonathan India hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Amfernee Seymour for the tying run before Corey Cohen hit into a fielder’s choice to score Trevor Maloney for the go-ahead run.

“When India hit the sacrifice fly, all I was thinking about is I have to score,” Seymour said. “I waited until the guy caught it and released it because I didn’t want the umpires to think I didn’t tag up.”

Cohen said he was determined to make something happen with the score tied at 4.

“A guy on third, one out, I knew I wasn’t striking out,” Cohen said. “I was just trying to do anything to put the ball in play, and then I got down 0-2, 1-2, and then he gave me a low change-up. I just put a short swing on it and chopped it, and Trevor scored and we took the lead.”

Heritage took a 3-0 lead in the third inning, taking advance of three Florida Christian erros and a hit to score the runs. Seymour and India scored on errors, and Cohen singled in Todd Isaacs for another run.

With one swing of the bat, the Patriots tied it at 3 in the fourth on a three-run home by Edgar Michaelangli.

An inning later, Florida Christian took the lead, 4-3, as Julian Abreu scored on an error.

Corey Cohen drove in the winning run for Heritage.

Friday’s loss was the eighth by a run this season for the Patriots (19-10), who were trying to get back to the state tournament for the first time since 2006.

“The whole year we’ve battling in situations like this,” Patriots coach Ernie Padron said. “You gotta do the little things. The little things have to happen, and in that last innings, things didn’t go our way, bottom line. I’ve very proud of my boys. My boys fought, and they didn’t quit.”

Padron noted the performance of Molkentin and how his pitching kept Florida Christian in the game.

“Jake pitched real well,” Padron said. “His pitch count got too high. He got to 109, four more pitches than we would have liked for him to throw. Obviously, there was that one inning where we couldn’t field. We made a couple of mistakes behind him and kind of led to the high pitch count. He battled. He showed a lot heart.”

Cohen said he thought Florida Christian is a state-caliber team and gave his team all it can handle and then some.

“I think this might have been the toughest team we’ve seen all year, and just because we’re not at states yet doesn’t mean this team wasn’t good enough to be at state because if this team wasn’t in the same region as us, we would have been playing them in the championship. I mean, if we get to the championship.”

Mazza said his team got what it expected in its match-up with Florida Christian, a storied program that reached the state tournament each year from 2001 to 2006.

“This type of game tests young men to do their best. Both teams gave their best. They hung in their the whole time. I’m so proud of them. They never gave up until the last inning. Ernie Padron has an excellent program. We knew when we came down here we were in a hostile environment, a fun hostile environment. They’re going to put the pressure on us. They’re going to bunt. They’re going to run. This is a fun environment. It’s something these guys will never forget. We knew it was going to be a fight until the last out.”

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