American Heritage Shutout By Jacksonville Providence 2-0 In Class 3A State Final

Stallions shortstop Jonathan India turns a double play on Thursday afternoon.

The American Heritage baseball team made it all the way to the Class 3A state championship game by executing all the little things right along the way.

But in Thursday’s title game, it just wasn’t happening.

Despite several big scoring chances, visiting Heritage was shutout 2-0 by Jacksonville Providence behind a complete-game pitching gem from its senior ace Walker Lockett in a game played at Digital Domain Park in Port St. Lucie.

Heritage (22-8) had sought its first state championship, and was playing in the big game for the first time in school history.

Providence (27-5) won its third state title and finished the season on a 20-game winning streak.

“My hat’s off to Providence. They put a couple of runs up, and we didn’t,” Heritage coach Carm Mazza said. “We out-hit them, but we just couldn’t tie anything together. We executed all year, but today we didn’t.”

Heritage threatened with runners on the bases in multiple innings, but the big play just never developed. Realizing this pitching duel rendered runs at a premium, the team was incredibly aggressive on the base paths.

Unfortunately, it would be their undoing.

Three different innings Heritage had a runner get picked off from third base, including a failed double-steal in the fifth inning that proved to be the back-breaker after the runners twice were unable to synchronize their timing on the play.

“On a couple of different plays, we tried to run, but two times, the timing was off,” Mazza admitted. “The first time we broke from first too soon, and the second we left from third a little too early. That play had worked for us all year.”

Heritage starter Dylan Silva follows through after a pitch in the state finals.

Heritage threatened again in each of the final two innings in putting a runner on first base. But both times Providence pulled off a double play to escape the threat, including a 6-4-3 double play that ended the contest.

Heritage had held back its ace pitcher Dylan Silva in Wednesday’s 5-4 semifinal victory over St. Petersburg Catholic, and the big lefty delivered the kind of performance expected from him in going the distance and allowing only four hits.

Silva (5-3) issued six walks however, and Providence capitalized for both runs off the free passes for all the offense it would need in the third inning with an RBI sacrifice fly and an RBI single to follow it.

After battling through a lingering left-ankle sprain for much of the season, Silva then suffered a minor injury to his right ankle early on in the second inning. After the training staff came out to assist him, the senior was able to remain in the game and give his team every chance by keeping it close.

“It was there, but you just play through it,” Silva said. “I did as good as I could, and the defense was great behind me. We didn’t have any errors. I just walked a couple and they scored on us.”

Silva also recorded seven strikeouts in the loss.

Although Lockett (8-1) was in control throughout, the Heritage offense was successful against him in putting the ball in play as they only struck out three times against the big right-hander.

Heritage players had plenty to celebrate this season.

Freshman Jonathan India led the way by going 2-for-3, and Michael Shephard was 1-for-1 and was hit by a pitch.

While Heritage graduates some key members from the team, it also will return a good portion of the group that helped make this season so successful.

“We’ll miss our seniors, but we feel very good for next year,” Mazza said. “We are strong up the middle, and we have a couple of returning arms. Plus we had some freshmen in the dugout today who are ready to go. Out of the 26 guys, we have so many who want to come back here, and they don’t want this feeling next year. The now know what it takes. If and when we get back here, they’re gonna be ready.”

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