Palm Beach Gardens Comes Back For 2-1 Victory Over Miami Pace

The Gators Zion Bell drove in both runs on a big hit with two outs in the top of the seventh inning. Bell was 2-for-4.

If one didn’t know any better, they would swear the Florida high school baseball playoffs started early on Thursday evening.

With the playoffs actually set to begin Monday, Miami Pace and Palm Beach Gardens could not have asked for a better regular-season finale to get them ready for it.

The visiting Gators scored a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning on a big hit from senior Zion Bell to come back for a tough 2-1 victory in a game played at Miami Pace.

With runners on second and third and the Gators down to their final out, Bell blooped a 1-0 pitch into shallow center field to score Nick Oberg and Nick Gallo.

“Two-out hits like that will win you a championship,” Gardens coach Joe Russo said. “That’s what it takes in a game like this.”

It was by no accident that Gardens (16-9) scheduled such a challenging opponent for its final regular-season tune up. With the Gators competing in arguably the toughest district in the state of Florida, the team knows that tough road games such as this can provide just the sort of momentum it will take to earn them a coveted regional playoff berth.

Winning tough games on the road has become a staple of what the 2012 Palm Beach Gardens baseball brings to the diamond. The Gators have gone 9-6 away from home this season, including winning the esteemed Florida League High School Invitational in Sanford.

“At some point, you have to win on the road to stay alive in the playoffs, so it’s good we play well on the road,” Russo said. “The last few games have been tough on us, but tonight we got it.”

Aside from scoring the deciding run, Nick Gallo also earned the victory on the mound after pitching two perfect frames with four strikeouts to close it out.

In all, the Gators used six pitchers after senior starter Brooks de Montluzin started things off with one and one-third innings pitched.

The Gators Darren Hansen faces Pace’s Raphael Vazquez.

The Spartans (18-7) broke a scoreless tie with a run in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a 1-0 lead, an advantage which appeared as though it would hold up the rest of the way.

But just as the Gators proved throughout this season after bouncing back from a tough start to the year, it is not how one starts but rather how they finish.

In the top of the seventh, Matt Williams led off with a single through the left side of the infield to provide the offense with a spark. After the Spartans recorded the first out on a failed sacrifice-bunt attempt, Oberg displayed excellent patience and poise in working a tough at-bat for a walk. Gallo followed with a hit to third that erased Williams, but Gallo was able to slide safely into first base and beat the throw for the back end of the double-play attempt, bringing Bell to the plate.

“Tonight, the hardest out to get was the last one,” Spartans coach Tom Duffin said. “This is a good friendly rivalry, except they always seem to find a way to get us.”

Bell finished 2-for-4, and Williams was 2-for-3 with a stolen base.

Leave a comment using your facebook account!