Knights stay two games above .500 as they split doubleheader vs West Boca
On Saturday, the West Palm Beach Knights split a doubleheader with the West Boca Snappers. Game 1 was a narrow defeat as they lost 3–2, but the second game was a different story, as the Knights dominated and won by a score of 13–7. West Palm Beach stays two games over .500 with an 18–16 record, while the Snappers move to 18–15.
Game 1:
West Boca’s runs came early in the ballgame with an RBI single from Aidan Tornquist and as Cole Parker was put out on his at bat, Tony Casanova was able to score and put the Knights in a 2–0 hole after one.
The next run was scored off of a wild pitch from Bodey Ellis in the bottom of the second on an 0–2 count to bring home Michael Chavez and after two the lead was now 3–0 for West Boca.
It took a while for West Palm Beach to respond, as their first score came from Andres Paret in the fourth inning with an RBI single from Andres Paret to score Dominik Ramil. The Knights then had the bases loaded after Drew Winters was walked, but Andrew Eppinger was put out on his first attempt at the plate to end the inning for the Knights.
The momentum continued to build for West Palm Beach as catcher Christopher Mariani hit a solo home run to cut the deficit to one. But unfortunately for the Knights, they weren’t able to score anymore and lost the first game 3–2.
Game 2:
The second game was very similar through five innings, with the Knights facing another 3–0 deficit. But the sixth and ninth innings changed the ball game, as West Palm Beach scored 12 of their 13 runs in those two innings and take full control of the game as the Snappers had to come back down 13–5 in the ninth, where they ended up scoring two runs.
Gino Bellantoni had a strong outing with two hits and three RBI’s for the game, a season high for Bellantoni. Juhlien Gonzalez continued to add to his impressive RBI total with two for the game and is tied for the lead in RBI’s this summer with 22, the other player tied with Gonzalez is Ryan Thiesse from the Pompano Beach Clippers. Jimmy Kemp and Drew Winters also had a multi-RBI game with two.
Pitching:
Bodey Ellis was given the loss in the first matchup. Ellis pitched in 4.1 innings and threw five strikeouts. And on the other side, Jake Malloy earned his second win of the year, as he also pitched in 4.1 innings and threw seven strikeouts while allowing only one earned run.
In the second game, West Palm Beach used five pitchers, but the winning pitcher was Brad Skinner, who now has his first win of the summer under his belt. The Snappers also used a combination of different pitchers, six in total. But the losing pitcher was Oliver Wilson, who now has three on the season.
Up Next:
The Knights will travel to Palm Beach Atlantic University on Sunday to face the Phipps Park Barracudas (11–19). West Palm Beach leads the season matchup 2–1, and their most recent game resulted in an 11–4 victory for the Knights on July 9th. The ballgame is scheduled to begin at 11:00 AM.