Knights lose second straight as Clippers pull away late
In a rematch from Monday’s game, the Pompano Beach Clippers (7–7) were able to get revenge on the West Palm Beach Knights (4–7) with an 8–5 victory, West Palm Beach have now lost two straight.
An RBI single from second baseman Luke Johnson scored the first run of the game in the bottom third. The offense continued to pick up, as an RBI single from Diego Prieto scored home Matt Destefano to increase their lead to 2–0. The Clippers continued the trend of RBI single’s the third coming from Tommy Reifler to give Pompano Beach a 3–0 lead going into the fourth.
The Knights were able close the gap in grand fashion, as Drew Winters hit a two-run dinger to cut the lead to one. Winters picked up his second home run of the season and now leads the team In homers for the season. West Palm Beach then had a runner on scoring position after a double from Tommy Easley, the Clippers were able to stall the momentum as Justin Rosner, who subbed in for starting pitcher Cooper Symmons, was able to strike out Luke Shannahan to advance to the bottom fourth.
Pompano Beach would respond in the same inning with an RBI single from Antonio Colon. The Knights then faced some trouble, as the bases were loaded after a walk on Luke Johnson, and Prieto was at bat who had an RBI earlier. But West Palm Beach was able to get out of the inning with a 1–3 putout and go into the fifth inning down 4–2.
West Palm Beach was able to knot the game at four with another two-run homer from catcher Christopher Mariani, as his first home run of the year came at a much-needed time.
Both teams had runners in scoring position in the sixth inning, but a 5–3 putout on Tommy Easley ended a chance for West Palm to take the lead with Tim Bouchard on third. And with runners on second and third with no outs for the Clippers, a 6–3 putout followed by two swinging strikes forced by Jacob Olde kept the inning scoreless.
West Palm Beach would then take the lead on the way they’ve scored the entire game: a home run. This time it was Willie Ponce who also added his first home run of the season. The Clippers would then trade home runs, as Diego Prieto hit a solo home run and continued his strong outing. A walk with Jonathan Bruno at the plate with the bases loaded gave the Clippers the lead back going into a crucial eight inning.
In the eighth, West Palm Beach wasn’t able to generate any runs, and the Clippers added two more to their lead. Their first score came off of a groundout on Ryan Theise, which allowed Destefano to make his way home. A sacrifice fly coming from Tommy Reifler scored Prieto and the Knights now had to climb out of an 8–5 hole.
Unfortunately, the ninth inning ended quickly for West Palm Beach, with three at bats leading to three outs.
Pitching:
Kole Rubenking was given the loss for West Palm Beach, pitching in the fifth inning with no earned runs and one strikeout. For Pompano Beach, Cooper Symmons earned his second win of the year, pitching in 3.2 innings throwing three strikeouts while also having two earned runs. Dan Beebe was rewarded with the win, throwing a game high six strikeouts in four innings.
Up next:
The Knights have four days off and will return to the field Tuesday, 11:00 AM to face the Florida Pokers (2–7) on the road at Santaluces high school. They will also play a game against the Boynton Beach Buccaneers (10–4), 6:00 PM at Harry Gribbon Field.