American Heritage survives Fort Myers’ comeback, wins 5A regional semifinal

PLANTATION — American Heritage junior pitcher Spencer Butt closed out a nail-biting 5A baseball regional semifinal victory on Thursday night, wriggling out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh inning.

Fort Myers, down 4-1 entering the final inning, saw its first three hitters reach base to load the bases and, after a strikeout, take another walk get a hit, making it 4-3. Then Butt found his bearings, coaxing a flyout too shallow to score the runner from third and firing a final strikeout for the white-knuckle Patriots win.

“I live for those moments,” Butt said. “That is why coach [Mike] Macey has the trust in me to do those things. We stay level-headed and that is what we do: we get the job done.”

Butt, who stepped on the mound in the top of the seventh with American Heritage leading 4-1, got the job done only after giving up a hit that was sandwiched in between two walks before producing his first out via a swinging strikeout.

The Patriot gave up runs to the next two batters, walking right fielder Finn Lewis and then allowing third baseman Madrid Tucker to single.

The momentum was in the Green Wave’s favor, but that was zapped when Butt recorded a flyout from designated hitter James Moschella and a game-ending whiff against left fielder Justin Christensen.

“He was the best I had in that situation,” Macey said of Butt. “He was going to win it our lose it.”

A balk from senior starting pitcher Brandon Gonsalves in the fourth inning with a runner on third had allowed Fort Myers to tie the game at 1-1, but the Patriots scored three runs two innings later.

Butt got the sixth-inning fun started with an RBI double deep to right-center field off Green Wave junior relief pitcher Tyler Borton. American Heritage senior first baseman Erik Blair and junior catcher Mateo Serna followed that up shortly thereafter by bringing in runs with back-to-back singles.

“I think our confidence went up when [Fort Myers senior starting pitcher Zach Root] was off the mound,” said Macey. “It became a different ball game. We saw that kid out, and we were like, ‘Okay.’ Our guys got a little bit bigger, the ball seemed to get a little bit bigger.” Root threw 11 strikeouts in his

5⅔ innings for Fort Myers, but also gave up a home run to deep center to senior outfielder Ray Bermudez in the bottom of the first for the game’s opening run.