Royal Palm Beach Edges King’s Academy 3-2

Justin Lauginiger on the mound.

The Royal Palm Beach Wildcats defeated the King’s Academy Lions on Tuesday in a closely fought battle. The score was tied after five of the seven innings, but the Wildcats held onto a one-run lead in the end.

The game was tied at two when the Wildcats came to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning. Senior Connor Brennan led off the inning with a walk and pinch-hitter Justin Douglas came in looking to bunt. Douglas laid a beauty down the third-base line and beat out the throw for a single. After a strikeout, senior Joseph Sleek placed another bunt down the first-base line. The well-placed bunt forced the Lions first baseman off the bag and left no one to cover first. With just one out and the bases loaded, senior Christopher Barr hit a fly ball to left that was deep enough for Brennan to tag from third and score the go-ahead run.

Jordan Lauginiger came in to close out the seventh for Royal Palm Beach. He retired the first two Lions’ batters before facing junior right fielder Mark Zippin. Zippin belted one deep in the left-field gap for a double with the heart of the Lions order looming. Number-three hitter John Carpenter came to plate with a chance to send the game into extras with a hit, but popped out to the pitcher after battling deep into the count.

“We needed a couple of clutch hits,” King’s Academy head coach Doug Magaw said. “Our pitchers know that in the future, we’re going to step up to the plate and execute, because tonight we had plenty of opportunities to drive runs in. RBIs win games. But we have 23 more games to get it right.”

Both teams received quality innings from their starters in tonight’s ballgame. King’s Academy freshman Clayton Morell went three and a third, giving up just two runs on two hits. The lefty received a no decision.

The starter and winning pitcher for Royal Palm Beach was Justin Lauginiger, with twin brother Jordan scoring the save. Justin went six innings, giving up two runs with only one of them earned. Locating his curve ball was key for Justin as he was able to find the strike zone early and keep hitters guessing.

Justin talked a little bit about his strategy after the game:

“In different counts, 2-1, 1-1 they’re thinking fastball and you come with the deuce. Then later in the game when you get ahead in the count, you can mix in different pitches.”

Justin Lauginiger struck out six on the night, including two caught looking.

“I’m very happy with the win. The kids did great,” Royal Palm Beach head coach Brian Joros said. “Offensively, we did the small things well, and defensively, we need to talk about the number in the error column because we’re better than that and we know we’re better than that, but we’ll just prove that as the season goes on.”

The Wildcats committed five errors to the Lions’ three, but both teams will look to bolster their defense as the regular season heats up.

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