P.B. Gardens Battles To Beat Jupiter For 8A-9 Title

Palm Beach Gardens celebrates after their 3-2 victory over Jupiter for the 8A-9 district crown.

Anytime rivals Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter play each other it is always a battle. The two teams have faced one another five times in the past two years with four of the five meetings being settled by two runs or less.

As expected, the two teams have had some pretty close games this year. Their first meeting of the year came on game six of the regular season with both teams entering the game a perfect 5-0. Jupiter got out to an early lead and never looked back on their way to a 3-2 win.

The two teams met again just three weeks ago and while the outcome was the same, a Jupiter win, this time the Warriors had to come from behind. They fell behind early on in the game before putting up four runs in the fifth to go on to a 4-2 victory.

Then came Friday night. The two teams met again in the 8A-9 championship, and again it was a scrape. Just like in the previous two meetings, it was a big inning that made the difference, except this time, it was the Gators who put up the big inning on their way to a 3-2 victory and a district championship.

“It was a battle,” Palm Beach Gardens Manager Joe Russo said. “Both pitchers did a great job and threw well. All these district games are really tough. We had three tough games with Jupiter, and it’s great to win this one.”

Gators starting pitcher Joey Boyd threw five shutout innings, striking out five and allowing three hits.

This game, like so many Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter games before, was a game of pitching for most of the night. Neither starting pitcher allowed more than one hit in an inning for the first five innings and neither team even had a runner in scoring position until the fourth.

Palm Beach Gardens starting pitcher Joey Boyd kept his team in contention every step of the way on Friday night. He pitched five strong innings, striking out five and only allowing three hits. It was the type of performance Russo expected to get out of his veteran pitcher.

“He’s a veteran guy in terms of the playoffs,” Russo said. “He’s been in these types of situations where he has to throw the big game, and you really can’t put a value on that. He’s going to go out and give you a good game in a situation like this because that’s the way Joey is built. To hold those guys scoreless through five is something to be proud of.”

Jupiter starting pitcher Kyle Keatts was right there with Boyd the whole time. Through those same five innings that Boyd pitched, Keatts allowed only two hits while striking out five. He got into some trouble in the sixth and that’s when the Warriors started to get into some trouble.

He gave up two consecutive singles to lead off the sixth inning to Palm Beach Gardens center fielder Nick Horvath and designated hitter Pavin Smith. JJ Schwarz came up and cleared the bases with a two-run double to break the scoreless draw.

Jupiter starting pitcher Kyle Keatts went five innings, striking out three while allowing three runs on five hits.

“I was on the fastball the whole night, and I knew he wasn’t going to come with that again,” Schwarz said. “So I sat on it, and I got a pitch over the plate and just swung on it.”

With runners on first and second and no outs, many coaches would call for the bunt, but Russo gave Schwarz the green light to swing away.

“First and second and nobody out, it’s kind of a bunt situation,” Russo said. “I told JJ before the at-bat we aren’t bunting, we are swinging. He said he would do whatever needed to be done, and it worked out pretty good.”

Schwarz came around to score later in the inning on an RBI force-out by Boyd.

Jupiter wasn’t done fighting though. Right fielder Pat Walther lead off the bottom of the sixth with a walk against Palm Beach Gardens relief pitcher Matt Williams. After a pop-out to left, Hunter Halsey reached on a throwing error.

A pop-out by Lance Fry brought up the number nine hitter, Peter Sitaras, with runners on first and second with two outs. Sitaras hit such a hard ground ball that it hit off of first base and flew into shallow right field, bringing around Walther to break the shutout and bring the Warriors to within two.

Walther drove in a run in the bottom of the seventh on a sacrifice fly, but that was as close as Jupiter got.

“This team won’t give up,” Jupiter Manager Andy Mook said. “They fight for each other and keep on battling. It’s a great group of kids, and they are always going to keep battling.”

With the victory by Palm Beach Gardens, the Gators will now stay at home as they will face the 8A-10 runner-up Seminole Ridge in what will be a rematch of the March 9th meeting of the two teams. Jupiter will travel to Park Vista to face the Cobras.

While the loss for Jupiter hurt, Mook still has complete confidence in his team.

“This is just a bump in the road,” Mook said. “It does stink, you’re second place, but this is just a bump in the road and this will be something to fuel them to get them focused more so we can keep going further.”

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