Knights win convincingly against Barracudas led by eight unanswered runs
The West Palm Beach Knights defeated the Phipps Park Barracudas 8–2 on Sunday. The Knights have now won seven out of their last nine games and now have a record of 19–16. The Barracudas continue their struggles and are now 11–20.
Although the Knights ended up winning by a big margin, they faced an early deficit. In the bottom third, Reese Woody had a sacrifice fly to score Jack Clancy, and an error by second baseman Sam Holtz brought home Chris Scholler and West Palm Beach faced a 2–0 deficit after three.
After that slow start, the Knights turned up the intensity and Phipps Park wasn’t able to match it. The Knights scored their first run on an RBI double from Dominik Ramil to score Andres Paret, and a sacrifice fly from Jimmy Kemp to bring in Ramil tied the ballgame at two. Juhlien Gonzalez then added an RBI single to close out the inning and put the Knights on top 3–2 going into the fourth inning.
The scoring for both teams would pause in the fifth, but West Palm Beach continued to add on in the sixth and seventh innings. With two outs in the sixth, Tyler Cox was able to keep the inning alive with a single, and Jimmy Kemp followed up with a double to put both runners in scoring position. And with Willie Ponce advancing to first, an error by Barracudas third baseman Luke Roberts allowed Kemp and Cox to run home to extend the lead to 5–2.
West Palm Beach would continue to capitalize off of Phipps Park errors, as in the seventh inning Tommy Easley scored after an error came from left fielder Jack Clancy.
The final blow came from Ramil in the ninth with an RBI single to score Tommy Easley and Danny Baez. Those final two runs made it eight unanswered and the Knights took the season series with Phipps Park winning 3–1.
Pitching:
Knights All-Star pitcher Garrick Murray earned his second win of the season. For this outing, Murray pitched in six innings and gave up only two hits and one earned run while throwing three strikeouts. And for Phipps Park, Kyle Machado was the losing pitcher and is up to three losses for the year. Machado lasted five innings and threw five strikeouts.
Up Next:
The Knights will play their final road game of the season on Tuesday against the Palm Beach Diamond Ducks (18–18). The last meeting between these two teams resulted in a 12–2 mercy rule victory for the Knights on July 14. The Knights will look to even the matchup at 2 wins apiece as the Diamond Ducks have a 2–1 advantage over West Palm Beach. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 PM and will be played at Joe Russo field.