Timely Hits, Solid Pitching Power Wellington Past Douglas

Michael Cusenza earned Player of the Game honors after his four-hit performance.

Wellington did the right things to win a big game Wednesday night: solid hitting, good pitching and strong defense.

Its counterpart, Douglas, made too many mistakes and didn’t do enough on offense to overcome the Wolverines in Wellington’s 7-5 win in the teams’ opening game of the HSBN Preseason Challenge on Wednesday at Coral Springs High School.

Douglas and Wellington came out of the gate hot and each put up a score in the first inning. Peter Rivera’s RBI single produced a run for Wellington, and the Eagles answered back as Brandon Dreichler singled in Colton Bottomly, who got on with a double.

Douglas tacked on three more runs in the second, taking advantage of a couple of passed balls and an error while getting only one hit by Evan Leyva.

Starting pitcher Nick Lawrence settled down after, and he and his reliever Jeremy Panakos shut down the Eagles the rest of the way, allowing just three hits. Panakos was especially efficient, throwing just 42 pitches in four innings.

“He throws three pitches for strikes,” Wellington coach Scott Riddle said. “He keeps the ball down. He’s not going to impress you with his velocity or his physicality.”

While the Wellington pitchers kept the Eagles at bay, the Wolverines went to work on offense, evening the score at 4 in the third inning. Five of the first six batters — David Koos, Jared Tosner, James Lovett, Michael Cusenza and Bradley Riddle — had hits. Koos, Tosner and Lovett also scored.

After a quick fourth inning, Wellington took the lead for good. Rivera singled and Lovett got on base with a fielder’s choice before Cusenza dropped down a bunt and reached base, allowing Rivera to score. An error brought in Lovett, and Riddle tacked on another run.

Johnny Valek started for Douglas on Wednesday.

Cusenza finished with four hits, including a double, and two RBI to earn the HSBN Player of the Game honors. His prize is an extended profile on PalmBeachHighSchoolBaseball.com

“We haven’t in the past shown the ability to put together a three- or four-hit inning,” coach Riddle said. “Our approach is short swings, hit the ball away, just use the whole field, keep the runners moving, bunt for base hits and sacrifice.”

Luis Silvero scored in the seventh on Bottomly’s sacrifice fly, but the Eagles could get no closer.

Douglas coach Todd Fitz-Gerald said he was concerned with his team’s defense and said it should have been better considering the time spent on it in practice.

“We’ve got to play better defense, communicate more and execute our pitches,” said Fitz-Gerald, who acknowledged his players have good resolve and will get better from their performance.

Cusenza said his team wanted to be aggressive early.

“It was our first game, so we wanted to come out hard,” he said. “They’re a good team, but we capitalized on their errors.”

The Eagles get a chance to redeem themselves today when they take on Park Vista, another perennial power from Palm Beach, at American Heritage-Delray as the preseason tournament continues. The game starts at 4:30.

The Wolverines will take on Coral Springs in the night game at 7:30.

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