Florida baseball state championships recap: Sickles wins first state title in program history
The Florida High School Athletic Association’s (FHSAA) began its last day hosting the state baseball championships down at Lee County Sports Complex in Fort Myers, with Wednesday being Day No. 7 of the state championships for Class 5A, 6A and 7A.
Games that took place on Saturday was the Class 5A state championship between Jesuit and Plantation American Heritage, then the Class 6A state title game with Sickles-Viera and 7A’s Majory Stoneman Douglas-Plant. Read more down below of our recaps on the state championships that took place.
Class 5A state championship: Plantation American Heritage 8, Jesuit 5 (eight innings)
For the first time since 2012, Plantation American Heritage will be bringing back a state championship to the school.
The Patriots upended last year’s Class 5A champions Jesuit to win the program’s third ever state title. Plantation American Heritage shortstop Spencer Butt drove in four runs on two hits with one being a home run and scoring twice himself.
Pitching the Patriots (21-6) to the state crown was left-gander Spencer Krasner. Krasner pitched just under six innings, allowed six hits, five runs, striking out five batters.
Jesuit (27-5) held a 4-1 lead heading into the fourth inning, but that’s when Plantation American Heritage would chase off Tigers’ starters pitcher Wes Mendes. The Patriots scored five runs in the fourth inning to take a 5-4 lead.
The Tigers would tie the game up at 5-all in the bottom of the fifth, which would eventually take the game into extra innings. An Andrew Ortiz double drove in the go-ahead run, with Zack Wilson driving in two more runs to end the scoring.
Class 6A state championship: Sickles 4, Viera 2
For the first time in program history, the Sickles Gryphons will be bringing a state championship back to the school located off Gunn Highway.
In what was a stellar pitching performance from right-gander Cameron Guise, the junior pitched five solid innings, allowing two runs on four hits and striking out six to lead Sickles past Viera.
All of the scoring in the contest took place in the first two innings of the game and it would be Sickles (30-2) that struck first. Sickles’ bats touched up Viera starting pitcher Lucas Glendinning for three runs in the opening frame, which would be the only inning he pitched.
The Hawks (24-6) would score two runs in the top end of the second inning, with the Gryphons adding another run in the bottom of the inning. That would close out the scoring for both teams as Guise and senior Luke Fikar held the 4-2 lead the rest of the way for Sickles.
Class 7A state championship: Majory Stoneman Douglas 10, Plant 0 (five innings)
The perfect season is officially and finally complete for the Eagles.
Majory Stoneman Douglas did it in the same way they played all season long and that was in dominating fashion as starting pitcher Jayden Dubanewicz went five innings, allowed one hit in the shutout victory over the Plant Panthers (21-8).
If there was any doubt from the outset, the Eagles put those worries to rest as they plated three runs across the plate in the first inning off Panthers’ starter Garrett Hill. The only Plant batter to notch a hit off Dubanewicz was shortstop John Trey Freeman.
The game marked the first time a South Florida baseball team had gone undefeated/untied in a season since Westminster Christian did it back in 1996. The Eagles cap the season with a perfect 29-0 record.
Andy Villamarzo can be reached at andyvillamarzo@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @Andy_Villamarzo.
