Lake Worth, Cardinal Newman Earn Wins On Day Two Of Lake Worth Tournament

Cardinal Newman’s Anthony Zaleski bats in the first inning.

The Lake Worth Trojans overcame a tough and scrappy Wellington Christian squad 9-7 on Tuesday evening to earn a bid in the championship game of the team’s Spring Break tournament, which will be played at Dave Manzo Field in Lake Worth on Thursday evening.

“It’s nice to be in that game in our own tournament,” Trojans coach Mychal Teman said. “We’re happy to get a couple of wins. We could have put our heads down this season, but the whole Trojans club has come together and they are trusting one another.”

Also winning on Tuesday was Cardinal Newman, which downed Palm Beach Lakes 10-0 to earn a berth in the tournament’s third-place game on Thursday.

“We came here to take care of business,” Crusaders coach Daniel Prieto said. “Today we came in and played to our ability, and we were able to play our game.”

The opponents for each match up will be determined based upon Wednesday’s results.

In the closest contest of the tournament thus far, the Trojans (2-13) scored three unanswered runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to secure the win over the Eagles (3-6). After Lake Worth had opened a commanding 6-1 lead early on, Wellington Christian fought its way back to a 6-6 tie with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth.

While the Eagles are a young and inexperienced group, they proved that they know the game and that they play it well.

The Rams Ronald Wilson bats against Lake Worth’s Tyler Krull.

Nearly every Eagles starter reached base and the team scored in all but one inning in staying close with the Trojans. Eighth-grader Steven Pettet led the way in going 3-for-4 with three RBI, providing the big hit the team needed in three different at-bats. Robert Rodriguez was 1-for-4 with a stolen base and a run, and Kyle Berkowitz had a pair of walks and three stolen bases, as well as a perfectly placed sacrifice-bunt RBI.

“We are real excited to play in the tournament. We were unsure if we could play at this level but the kids were really excited to come play,” Eagles coach Robert Pettet said.

Meanwhile, the Trojans did put every starter on base, and they made the plays when it mattered most to earn their spot in the championship.

Lake Worth took an early lead in the bottom of the first when Shaun Steele drove in Ty Dowdy, and Steele then came in to score on an RBI single from Ben Fagan. Also scoring in the inning was starting pitcher Dalton Scragg.

It was Steele again in the second inning with an RBI double to drive in Dowdy, and this time Wayne Penton followed with an RBI single to drive in Scragg. Steele came across on a wild pitch to extend the lead to five runs.

Scragg picked up the victory for the Trojans after two relief innings in which he recorded four strikeouts.

In the matinee game, Newman starter Tyler Krull was dominant on the mound in limiting the Rams to three hits while picking up the complete-game shutout victory. The freshman needed just 60 pitches over six innings, recording 11 strikeouts without issuing any walks.

Lake Worth’s Dalton Scragg went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

Krull displayed an impressive array of fastballs and curveballs, occasionally mixing in a changeup.

“When someone has a 0-2 count, they don’t expect a fastball,” Krull said. “I felt good today and my curveball was working. I was able to get ahead with the curve.”

After taking a 2-0 lead in the second inning, the Crusaders (5-9) put the game away by batting around the order with four runs in the fourth inning. Daniel Cole and Michael Roca had consecutive RBI singles, and Bruce Steel and Alston LaCosta also had hits that led to runs off of errors.

Cole was 4-for-4 with 2 RBI and two runs and Roca was 3-for-5 with three RBI.

After hanging in tough with the Crusaders early on, the Rams (2-7) let the game get away from them late with a few costly errors that changed the game.

Rams starter Greg Hester threw 98 pitches over five innings, allowing 10 hits, three walks and recording three strikeouts.

The Rams best scoring threat came in the fifth inning after Ronald Wilson reached on an error and Michael Elis blooped a single to center and stole second base. But Krull was able to induce an infield hit that was fielded to home for the force out, and he recorded a pair of strikeouts to escape the threat unscathed.

Wellington Christian’s Steven Pettet was 3-for-4 with 3 RBI.

“They are a quality team, but today Krull hit his spots,” Prieto said.

The crowd on hand at Dave Manzo Field was treated to quite a rare and strange day, as an emergency helicopter landed in the outfield roughly an hour before the first pitch for an emergency call, and then the Rams’ Abraham Ramirez fouled off a pitch that shattered an overhead stadium light along the left sideline.

Thankfully, the emergency chopper was not needed a second time as no one was injured from the falling glass off the broken light.

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