Dolphins Upset by South East 6-2 in City Division I Opener

Momentum was with Palisades  heading into the City Section playoffs and the Dolphins felt good about their chances of reaching the finals at Dodger Stadium.   

For the first time since the Open Division debuted in 2018, Palisades was not among the 12 teams selected for the top division. Instead, the Dolphins settled for the No. 6 seed in Division I and after winning six of their final seven regular season contests to clinch second place in the Western League they were sure they could make noise in a bracket featuring several opponents they had already played and beaten.

However, first up was No. 11 South East last Thursday and the Jaguars  tagged starter John Iacono for three runs in the top of the first inning to show they were not awed by the home crowd at George Robert Field.

Palisades threatened to cut into the visitors’ lead in the bottom half but stranded runners at second and third.

Neither side scored in the second, but in the third a double by Logan Bailey scored Jack Kurland to pull the Dolphins within two runs. South East added two runs in the fourth on an RBI single and a wild pitch but Iacono singled to score Reece Frankel to make it a three-run game with three innings left. South East restored its four-run margin in the fifth on a suicide squeeze and besides Roman Hawk’s two-out double in the fifth Palisades was unable to generate any offense the rest of the way, falling 6-2 and ending up 14-15—its second losing record in 17 seasons under Mike Voelkel. The only other time the Dolphins were below .500 in his tenure was in 2013 when they finished 11-17.