Knights sweep doubleheader versus Phipps Park, now over .500

In a doubleheader with the Phipps Park Barracudas (9–16), the West Palm Beach Knights won both games and are now above .500 with a 15–14 record. Game 1 was a battle, as the Knights scored the game winning run in the seventh to take a 4–3 victory. While game 2 was a dominating effort for West Palm Beach, winning by a score of 11–4. Here is what unfolded both games.

Game 1:

The Knights trailed 3–0 going into the bottom of the sixth, with the Barracudas scoring on an RBI single from Reese Woody, and a sacrifice fly from Jack Clancy and Michael Starrs. The offense was struggling for a majority of the game, but the saying “It’s not how you start that’s important, but how you finish!” came true in the final two innings for West Palm Beach.

On his second at-bat of the day, Andres Paret hit an RBI triple to score the courtesy runner Marco Bellantoni who subbed in for Gino Bellantoni. Andrew Eppinger then scored in Paret with an RBI to cut the Barracudas lead to one. The Knights then had two consecutive outs after Eppinger and Tyler Cox had a groundout. And with the pressure to not face a two-run deficit going into the final inning, Jimmy Kemp responded to adversity with a big home run to and tie the game at three going into the seventh.

West Palm Beach was then able to shut out Phipps Park to be in a position to finish the game in the final inning. And with two outs and while being against the count, Townson Ellis was able to get the winning RBI to score Drew Winters and win the game for the Knights as Barracudas outfielders Starrs and Colton MacCaughtry collided as they attempted to get the fly out.

Game 2:

A lot of action took place in the second game of the doubleheader. The Knights were able to score the first two runs in the second inning as a walk with the bases loaded scored Franklin Carney, and Juhlien Gonzalez was able to come home after Tyler Muscat was hit by a pitch from Salvatore Zaremba.

But the lead was quickly erased with an RBI single from Kyle Platt to score Christian Gemelli and Luke Roberts. Reese Woody then had an RBI single allowing Platt to run home and give Phipps Park a 3–2 as the game went to the bottom of the third.

The Knights would then charge back as Carney had an RBI triple to bring in Cox, and Juhlien Gonzalez recorded his second home run of the season with a two-run homer to make the lead 5–3. The last run of the inning came from Willie Ponce as he made it home courtesy of an RBI single from Kieron Crowder.

The Knights were able to add on to the lead after an error made by Phipps park. In the fourth, Muscat scored his second run of the game off of a pass ball, and the lead remained at 5–3 until the sixth inning.

The Barracudas were able to inch closer to a tie game as Dylan Mclaughlin secured an RBI single and Gianfranco Messina earned his first run of the game. But every time Phipps Park scored, the Knights were able to respond, and that trend continued in the bottom of the inning.

Sam Holtz brought home three of the Knights four runs in the inning with an RBI double, and in the following at bat, Tyler Cox hit the ball in the outfield for a sacrifice fly to bring Holtz home, and the Knights headed into the seventh with a seven-run advantage, and were able to end the inning quickly with three straight outs and extend their winning streak to three.

Pitchers:

Patrick Montagna pitched the entire game in the first matchup and now has his first win of the season. For Phipps Park, Anthony Aparico was the losing pitcher and now has three losses on the season as he subbed into the game for the final inning. For the second matchup, Fletcher Reynolds remained undefeated for the season and now has two wins with no losses. Reynolds allowed only one hit and threw three strikeouts. Josh Martos was handed the loss for the Barracudas.

Up Next:

The Knights will return to the field on Tuesday for a doubleheader at home against the Palm Beach Xtreme (22–9). The Knights will look for revenge against Palm Beach, as they were defeated 5–1 in their last meeting. The first game is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM, and the following game will be at 1:00 PM.