Naples baseball upsets American Heritage to reach state Final Four

PLANTATION — Naples baseball coach Jimmy Nocera didn’t want to knock off nationally-ranked Plantation-American Heritage for his own glory. He wanted to do it for all of Collier County.

The Golden Eagles are off to the Class 5A state semifinals after a 4-2 Region 5A-4 final victory Monday night that was only the host Patriots (26-2) second loss of the season.

Naples will play Class 5A top-seeded Tampa-Jesuit at 1 p.m. Thursday at Hammond Stadium with Marcos Torres slated to start for the Golden Eagles.

Previously: Naples baseball, softball advance; Verot's Whalen wins gold at state meet

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“I want everybody to know what kind of baseball is happening in Collier County right now,” Nocera said. “I hope that not only that we do it for Naples High, but we do it for the other teams — Barron Collier, Lely, Seacrest, Gulf Coast … I mean. these teams are very good. And I think people can start realizing what kind of baseball we have in Collier County right now.”

Nocera got some local help in putting together a game plan against a two-time state champion that came in with a 22-game winning streak.

“I had a big scouting report from the other coaches that played them. The Fort Myers coach (Kyle Burchfield) really helped me.”

Johnny King drove in his team’s first and fourth runs with RBI singles and earned the victory by pitching the final 3 2/3 innings. He allowed five hits and a walk, and he hit a batter, but he also struck out seven and coaxed a double-play ball that ended a bases-loaded threat in the fourth inning. He stranded nine base runners.

“You can’t say anything more about Johnny King,” Nocera said. “I mean, Johnny King has been a big-time player since the kid’s been 6 years old, and I’m glad that he’s finally here and doing good things for Naples High. He dealt tonight. Johnny King was the story of the night if you ask me.”

“I took every pitch personal,” the sophomore southpaw said. “I hit all my spots that I needed and I was just relaxed.”

Naples (22-9) got going in the first. Center fielder Michael Graziano led off with a walk, moved to second on a balk, and with two outs, King, who started the game at first base, hit an 0-2 pitch to right-center off left-hander Erik Blair for a 1-0 lead.

“Usually I’m not good lefty vs. lefty, but I wasn’t expecting that fastball,” King said. “It was high and inside and I went right with the pitch.”

The Patriots tied the game in the second with a two-out rally, which was extended by a controversial play in which Jorge Machado got an infield single. The Naples coaching staff insisted that he fouled the ball off his foot, but their appeal was denied. Then No. 9 hitter Chris Levy blooped a single over shortstop Jason Bello to even the score.

Golden Eagles starter Reilly Witmer gave up three hits and five walks in 3 1/3 innings. He struck out five and hit a batter.

Blair struck out 11 of the first 17 Naples batters he faced, but with two outs in the fifth, catcher and No. 9 hitter C.J. Bussell bunted for a base hit and Graziano walked. Blair was replaced by Evan Dobias, who walked Bello. With the bases loaded, catcher Marcos Torres hit a 1-1 pitch into left-center for a two-run single and a 3-1 lead.

“Marcos has been like that all year,” Nocera said. “He led our team in RBIs this year, and he was the guy I wanted in that spot right there because he’s an RBI machine. He’s Mr. Clutch. He’s 5 foot 6, he’s the smallest guy on the field with the biggest heart and the biggest guts.”

King then hit a slow grounder up the middle, which he beat out for an infield single and a 4-1 lead.

In the fifth, the Patriots had runners on first and second and one out, but King fanned Lucas Ramirez and caught Zain Diaco’s line drive to end the threat. In the sixth, he gave up a walk and a double with two outs before fanning Blair.

In the seventh, he struck out the first two batters, then gave up two singles, then struck out Brian Cordero on a 3-2 pitch to finish it.

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“I was just so hyped up,” King said. “It was amazing.”

The Patriots left 12 runners on base.

“I think they made the play, they got the big hit, they made the big pitch,” Patriots coach Mike Macey said. “They beat us."

Macey said he didn’t know too many details about the Golden Eagles.

“We knew [Naples] was scrappy, we knew they were aggressive, and I think we pitched well. We hung one breaking ball and that was hit into center field and it led to a couple of runs.

“Our starting pitcher is a three-pitch kid … and we go with his strengths, and not necessarily what we know about guys or what we don’t know about guys.”

Naples is off to state despite not winning its district tournament and having to settle for the seventh seed in the regional tournament. It won three road games to get there

“Seventh seed or not, you still have to play good baseball, and I thought in the month of April, we played very well,” Nocera said. “Barron Collier was one of these psychological things for us to get over, and I think once we got over that, we built confidence from there.”

Nocera said his team wasn’t intimidated.

“We knew we had to play a very good game to beat them. But this is not arm wrestling, this is baseball. The team that executes the most wins. So I don’t care if they have nine or 10 D-1 players, we can beat anybody on a given night. And I felt that my guys just did not back down from the challenge.”

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Golden Eagles advance to FHSAA baseball state semifinal at Hammond Stadium