HSBN Game of the Week: PB Central at Royal Palm Beach

Palm Beach Central players gather for a talk.

One of the top rivalries in the central part of Palm Beach County will be spotlighted Saturday when Royal Palm Beach faces off against Palm Beach Central in the HSBN Palm Beach Game of the Week.

Because of their location, the teams have developed a strong rivalry over the past decade as Central grew into a county power.

“Palm Beach Central and Royal Palm Beach have that kind of a built-in rivalry due to the geography of being in the ‘western community,’ ” Central Manager Scott Benedict said. “That rivalry has grown over the past decade. Last year’s 14-13 ballgame did nothing but ignite the flames.”

The Game of the Week concept was created by HSBN with the intention of raising money for the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation, while also giving fans something to get excited about each week.

“When HSBN approached us about playing in the Game of the Week, I was hoping that we would be selected,” Benedict said. “I was grateful for the opportunity when I found out our team was selected to play. Playing in the game will help magnify the atmosphere. We want to play in big games against quality opponents. I am thankful that we have a chance to spotlight our baseball program and our players.”

Royal Palm Beach Manager Bart Wible said his team also is looking forward to participating in a Game of the Week.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to play in an HSBN game of the week,” Wible said. “We had hoped that our success last season would start to gain some attention in the program and being approached to be one of the featured games is an honor that that success was noticed. Having Palm Beach Central in our conference and getting the opportunity to play them is great. Central always fields a very competitive and well coached team and presents a constant challenge for our program. Playing top level competition such as Central is always a great way of seeing where we stand as a team.”

Jordan Lauginiger is among the Wilcats’ top arms this season.

Bendict said the players were “thrilled and excited” to hear they were chosen for a Game of the Week, and he said “it should be a great Saturday night match-up.”

Wible said the both teams are treating the game with importance.

“Central being a conference opponent means that this game always carries meaning with it and everyone is well aware of the top of the line program and great coaching that PB Central has,” Wible said. “Many of the kids on both of these teams know each other very well and both teams want to win this game very much. There is a lot of pride involved in not only the outcome of this game but keeping it competitive and giving best effort.”

The Broncos are off to an 8-2 start, and Benedict says the players are working hard to improve and prepare for the district playoffs in April. With the competition in their district, there is no time for a day off, he said.

“All phases of our game will have to be hitting on all cylinders if we expect to advance in the postseason,” Benedict said.

Some players leading the team are catcher Joe Shue (.333 BA, team-leading 10 RBI), center fielder Gage Morey (.500 BA), outfielder/left-handed pitcher Shane Sawczak (.423 BA, 2-0, 15 Ks, 1.24 ERA), right-handed pitcher Jorge Alfonso (4-0, 0.89 ERA) and left-handed pitcher John Padich (2-1, 32 Ks, 1.75 ERA).

Royal Palm has had a rougher go of it this year. The Wildcats are 3-5 but have won their past two games, including a 4-3, 10-inning victory over Santaluces on Friday.

“We have been disappointed with our start early this season,” Wible said. “We knew we graduated a lot of contributors but feel that we have players who can step in and pick up the slack of what we graduated and so far haven’t produced on the field. We planned on having a fairly potent offense and are still working on getting better results with our at bats and defensively we need to clean up our play to give our pitchers more confidence that they can go out and do what they can do.”

Kyle Houck is batting .412 to lead the offense, and Jordan Lauginiger has 25 strikeouts and 1.33 ERA in 21 innings.

Although Palm Beach Central still is deciding on who will throw out the ceremonial first pitch, Royal Palm Beach will be going with Kason Gabbard, who played for the Wildcats before reaching the major leagues as a pitcher for Texas and Boston. He recently came back to help out with Royal Palm’s pitching staff.

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