Riding high on a nine-game winning streak, the Palisades High varsity baseball team was full of confidence when it took George Robert Field for Monday’s Birmingham Easter Tournament game against Los Angeles Marshall. The Dolphins hadn’t lost since March 6 and seemed poised to increase their winning streak to 10 heading into spring break. Instead, the Barristers reminded Pali what it feels like to lose, scoring three runs in the top of the second inning and three more in the fifth en route to a 9-3 victory. ‘Not that there’s ever a good time to lose, but I’d rather lose this game than our next one,’ PaliHi co-coach Tom Seyler said, referring to the Dolphins’ game against defending league champion Venice next Tuesday. ‘We got a chance to play a lot of guys today and Saturday to see what they could do. A few players really showed me something. The important thing is that we’re still undefeated in league.’ Playing in just his second game back, Dylan Cohen continued right where he left off last season when he hit over .500 and earned All-City honors, going three for four with a double, a line-drive single and a two-run home run to center field. Cohen missed Pali’s first 10 games while rehabilitating a stress fracture in his back sustained during football season, but has four hits in his first seven at-bats as designated hitter this season. ‘It feels great to back out there,’ Cohen said, a junior who will start at short stop for the first time against Venice. ‘Even though I wasn’t in the lineup, I’ve been practicing really hard. When I’m up at the plate, I never think about striking out. I have good hand-eye coordination, so I just rely on that to make contact. Our coaches do a great job of telling us what to look for also.’ Like it had throughout its winning streak, Palisades (9-3 overall, 4-0 in league) took the early lead on Marshall (5-7-1 overall). After Steve Nirenberg struck out Henry Aleman with the bases loaded to end the top of the first inning, Cohen doubled, took third base on a wild pitch and scored on a double by Alex Thompson to give Pali a 1-0 lead. Nirenberg was relieved by Turhan Folse in the fourth inning, Kevin Seto pitched the fifth and Matt Skolnik pitched the final two innings for Palisades. ‘This is the first game in a while where our pitching didn’t keep us in it,’ Seyler said. ‘They jumped on us early and that hasn’t been happening to us. We made some uncharacteristic mistakes, too, which kept their rallies going.’ During its winning streak, which lasted one day short of a month, Palisades built early leads on its opposition and relied on its starting pitchers to last deep into games. That was the case in Saturday’s 5-0 victory over Monroe, when ace right-hander Geoff Schwartz allowed one hit and struck out four in five innings and reliever David Bromberg struck out five batters in the final two innings. In the top of the first inning, Seto doubled and advanced to third when Cohen singled in his first at bat of the season. Cohen promptly stole second and Seto eventually stole home when Cohen was caught in a rundown between second and third. Pali added a run in the fourth on Skolnik’s RBI single. Seto led off the fifth inning with a single, then stole second. Cohen was hit by a pitch and Adam Franks walked to load the bases. Folse singled to score Seto and Cohenamd Pali led, 4-0. Franks scored the final run in the seventh inning on a one-out single by Bromberg. ‘It would’ve been nice to beat Marshall because we had a good streak going,’ Seto said after Monday’s game. ‘They are a quality team and it might’ve helped us get a higher seed come playoff time. I consider this really our first loss because the first two games were sort of experimental. We didn’t really have our lineup set.’ In its last league game before, Palisades completed a sweep of Hamilton with a 12-2 victory in six innings as the Dolphins won by way of the 10-run mercy rule for the second time in three days. Pali outscored the Yankees 22-2 in the two games. Andrew Strassner pitched the first four innings, allowing six hits and one earned run. Bromberg relieved Strassner in the top of the fifth inning and got the last six outs of the game by strikeout. At the plate, Hunter Franks doubled, Seto walked and Schwartz doubled to score Franks with Pali’s first run before the Yankees recorded an out. Seto scored on Adam Franks’ sacrifice fly to add to the lead. Both Nirenberg and Perez hit RBI singles and Perez scored on a throwing error to increase the Dolphins’ lead to 6-1 after four innings. Needing two runs to end the game early, Pali had no intention of letting Hamilton off the hook. Monte Hickok led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a triple and scored on Folse’s single. Bromberg singled and Folse took third on a fielder’s choice. Ron Michel singled to score Folse and Pali had the 10-run margin it needed. Despite its fast start, however, Pali’s focus remains squarely on Venice. The Dolphins and Gondos play twice next week, at Palisades Tuesday and at Venice Thursday. ‘We can definitely take Venice,’ Seto said. ‘We have a couple of days off to work on some things and get our rotation right where we want it for them. They’ve been the team to beat in our league so we’re looking forward to playing them.’
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