Forest Hill First-Pitch Tournament Provides Nice Tune-Up Before Season Opener

Rams coach Dorwin Lynch consults with his players between innings.

There was a buzz this week with the Palm Beach Lakes baseball team.

Confidence was high and players were up for it.

It has been a long time since the school had been invited to any tournaments.

Players wore their jerseys in school leading up to the game.

But things did not go as well as they had imagined, as defending Class 1A state champion Summit Christian proved to be too much and won the nightcap in the Forest Hill First-Pitch Tournament, 20-0 in a shortened contest.

“We didn’t expect this and we have got work to do,” Rams coach Dorwin Lynch said. “It’s fixable and we’ll fix it. We have to show better if we want any respect, we have to play much better baseball. This is why we don’t get invited to tournaments. It’s unacceptable, and it’s got to get fixed.”

While it was clear early that these two teams were far apart in abilities, it was still a live forum for preparing teams for the regular season, and Summit Christian coach John Drouin was pleased to rotate his lineup and roster through and let everyone get some work in.

“That’s what preseason is for,” Drouin said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who can pitch and we need to see them throw.”

This was also the motto for Suncoast, who lost in the matinee opener 4-3 to Forest Hill. The Chargers were able to use four different pitchers during the game.

Summit Christian’s Sam Murphy bats against Palm Beach Lakes.

“We got as many guys as we could to get work tonight,” Suncoast pitching coach Mike Drahos said.

The Falcons enjoy hosting this event, and recently they expanded their dugouts to make it more useful for the teams. The players have respect for maintaining the field and the competition always plays clean, good baseball.

“We always want to have classy programs at our tournaments and we are very happy with the teams we have invited and how they have conducted themselves,” Forest Hill coach Russ Milliken said.

The idea for preseason is to get ready when games matter, but for the Rams this preseason is intended to prove that the team is ready to shake its misfortunes in recent years and end a long losing streak. So when things snowballed early for them, it was hard to maintain and make those crucial plays that change the outlook.

Coach Lynch does not mind if this embarrasses the players, or makes them angry, as long as they get emotional and let it motivate them. He knows that this group is the one that is capable of turning the program around, but it starts by having confidence and focusing. The team wants to be invited to tournaments like this one, where it can face competition like these teams.

“It’s a long season and we’re prepared for it,” Lynch said. “We’ve got to put this one behind us. It’s not going to happen to us every game.”

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