Knights fall behind late, unable to recover in defeat to Diamond Ducks
In what seemed to be a game that would go down to the wire as the West Palm Beach Knights and the Palm Beach Diamond Ducks were tied at four going into the seventh inning, the Diamond Ducks pulled away from West Palm in convincing fashion. Palm Beach outscored the Knights 6–0 to make the score 10–4, which proved to be a deficit too big to overcome, as the Knights were defeated 10–6. The Diamond Ducks now hold a 6–1 record, while the Knights fall to 3–4.
West Palm Beach left potential runs to start the game, as both Tyler Cox and Andres Paret stole bases after a pitch to put themselves in scoring position. But the inning closed with Andrew Crumbley striking out Dominik Ramil as the Knights went scoreless to begin.
The Diamond Ducks were able to strike first in the same inning as left fielder Joey Cicini hit an RBI single to make the score 1–0, which remained until the third.
West Palm Beach responded by capitalizing off of a wild pitch from Crumbley. With Paret running to steal third base, the throw to third from Crumbley was too strong and flew by Paret, as he advanced to home plate to even up the score. But the Knights walked away from another inning with runners threatening to score, with Ramil on second base and Drew Winters on third. But like the first inning, another strikeout ended the third, this time being on third baseman Juhlien Gonzalez.
The Diamond Ducks were then able to reclaim the lead after Winters was not able to hold onto the ball after Davis Blair hit it into left field, and Daulton Frank made it home to make it a 2–1 ballgame.
Another RBI single coming from extra hitter Jackson Wodraska expanded Palm Beach’s lead to a two-run game. West Palm Beach then responded with their best inning of the night.
Tyler Cox began the scoring, as he hit an RBI single bring home Paret. And in the next at bat, Drew Winters hit a two-run homer to give West Palm their first lead of the game. Winters’ home run marks the second consecutive game the Knights recorded a home run, and as a team they have three for the season.
But the lead was short lived and didn’t even last a full inning, as Diamond Ducks designated hitter Davis Blair’s RBI single made West Palm Beach’s lead disappear, as it was now an even game with both teams at four.
No runs were scored in the sixth, but the seventh inning dug a hole way too deep for West Palm to climb out of as the Diamond Ducks finished with 5 runs scored in the seventh. The Diamond ducks were able to get two runs off of walks after the bases were loaded, another two runs off of an RBI single from Joey Urban, and the fifth run came from a wild pitch from Townson Ellis.
After an RBI single from Cicini in the bottom eighth, the lead ballooned to 10–4, and the pressure was now on West Palm Beach to score at least 6 runs to extend the game.
The Knights only manufactured two runs in the ninth, one from Paret and another from Winters who both had an RBI single. But it was not enough, as an offensive explosion needed to occur for West Palm Beach to have any shot at winning.
Paret, Cox and Winters were the main source of offense tonight, as they combined for eight of the ten team hits while also having five RBI’s, which the team had as a whole.
Pitching:
Bodey Ellis received the loss for the Knights, pitching 2.1 innings after Patrick Montanga pitched four innings. Ellis struggled, as he finished with three earned runs, allowing four hits with only one strikeout. Andrew Sieczkowski was the winning pitcher, as he had three strikeouts with no earned runs in two innings.
Up next:
The Knights will have a chance to bounce back Wednesday against the Boca Raton Blazers at Little Fenway. The game is set to begin at 6:00 PM.