Forest Hill Slips Past Jupiter Christian In Extras

Forest Hill First Baseman Jesus Delgado goes 2-5 with the game winning RBI single in extra innings.

It took extra innings and two separate comebacks, but the Forest Hill Falcons outlasted the Jupiter Christian Eagles 15-11 in eight innings Monday night.

Jesus Delgado drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth to spark the victory.

It was Forest Hill’s third win of the season and gets them back to a .500 record.

The teams combined for 26 runs on 22 hits on a night that saw pitching take a back seat to high offensive outputs. Runs were scored early and often as there were only two innings where neither team scored at least one run.

Jupiter Christian got on the board first, plating two runs in the first inning. Dean Kellington led off with a walk, stole second and advanced to third on Jon Shuba’s groundout. Garrett Shook came to the plate and drove him in on a RBI single through the right side of the infield. After advancing to second on a wild pitch, Sean Farmer drew a walk to put runners on first and second with two outs. A throwing error by the Falcons pitcher on a Nick Constanakos ground ball brought in Shook for the second run of the game.

After no runs were put up in the second and third, Forest Hill started a rally in the fourth, their first of three on the night. After a leadoff single by Falcons catcher Yan Iglesias, Madison Milliken hit a sacrifice to move Iglesias over to second. Abraham Tatis was hit by a pitch, and Roberto Campos hit an RBI double, bringing in Iglesias and getting Forest Hill their first run of the game. Mike Rosario grounded out to third but it allowed Tatis to score and Campos to advance to third. That proved to be a big play on the bases as the next pitch would be a wild pitch, scoring Campos and giving the Falcons their first lead of the game at 3-2.

“I was real proud of our boys tonight,” Assistant Coach Johnny Perez said. “We battled the whole night, they kept together and they played hard baseball.”

The Falcons’ lead would not last long though. After putting up another run in the fourth to extend their lead to two, Jupiter Christian started a little rally of its own, to the tune of a seven-run fifth inning.

Dean Kellington went 1-for-4 with three RBIs.

Sending 11 batters to the plate in the fifth inning, all 11 either got on base or drove in a run. The seven-run fifth inning for the Eagles was highlighted by Kellington’s two-run single.

Again, the Falcons came fighting back in the top half of the sixth. Jesus Delgado singled to get everything started. Chris Batista reached on a throwing error and Jose Crespo was hit by a pitch to load up the bases with only one out. A wild pitch brings in Delgado and allowing Batista and Crespo to advance to second and third. Anthony Batista came up and drove both in on a RBI double. The Falcons plated one more in the inning to cut the deficit to one.

Jupiter Christian got what appeared to be two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to give them a three run lead with Forest Hill having one last shot to make one final comeback, which is exactly what they did. They manufactured three runs in the bottom of the seventh to send it into extras and after an impressive pitching performance by Falcons pitcher Jose Crespo in the bottom of the seventh, they came up to bat in the eighth inning with a chance to win it and that’s exactly what they did. Delgado drove in the go-ahead run and Chris Batista drove in a run for insurance, which is all they would need as Crespo came back out in the bottom of the eighth to shut the door and finish off the come from behind victory.

“I was proud of Jose coming in there and closing the door,” Perez said. “Chris and Jesus came out and hit the ball hard for us the whole night. Jesus comes up and gets the game-winning RBI there. The boys went out and did what they were supposed to.”

For Jupiter Christian, Dean Kellington lead the offense on the night, going 1-for-4 with three RBIs.

Although the Eagles came up short of the victory tonight, Manager Dave Loud said it’s all about improving and continuing to get better as a team.

“Every day they get better,” Loud said. “Every day they learn. Every day they learn something new and they execute and we are taking our game to the next level. We just have to execute all three in the same game.”

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