Pali High Baseball Splits Pair Versus League Rival Yankees

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Entering this season the Palisades High baseball team had not lost a Western League game since 2017. Last Friday, the Dolphins dropped their second league contest in two weeks as host Hamilton scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take the lead and hung on for a 6-5 win that knocked Palisades into second place in the standings.

“Twice we had the bases loaded and couldn’t score and we made a couple errors at critical times which cost us,” Coach Mike Voelkel said.

The visitors got off to a promising start when Logan Bailey blasted the first pitch of the game over the left field fence for a home run. Another run scored on a balk and before Starter Reece Frankel took the mound his team had staked him to a 2-0 lead. The Yankees got a run back on Jacole Wilson’s RBI double, but Hudson Ramberg scored on Isaic Buenrostro’s infield single in the second. Frankel walked in a run in the bottom half, but Ramberg’s sacrifice fly scored Ian Sullivan to give Palisades a 4-3 lead in the third.

After a sacrifice bunt scored a run and an RBI single tied the game 4-4, Wilson hit a two-RBI single off of reliever Alex Loos, who induced two pop outs to escape the jam. The Dolphins stranded runners at second and third in the fifth and Hamilton loaded the bases in the bottom half but failed to score. Bailey walked to lead off the sixth, Jack Kurland followed with a single and Roman Hawk walked. Conor Greene drew a bases-loaded walk to force home Bailey and pull the Dolphins within one, but a strikeout and ground out ended the threat. Hamilton left the bases loaded in its half, but after Ramberg singled to lead off the seventh he was caught stealing and the next two batters were retired to give Hamilton its first victory over Palisades since an 8-4 win in 2015.

In the first of the two-game set last Wednesday, Conor Greene scored from third when the Yankees misplayed a pickle in the bottom of the seventh to give Palisades a 5-4 win.

Frankel doubled to lead off the sixth and scored on a sacrifice fly to tie it.

Palisades made seven errors in Saturday’s 11-2 home loss to Legacy.