Royal Palm Shocks Atlantic To Sweep Season Series

Kyle Houck drove his little brother Sean home to tie the game in the seventh.

Last season the Royal Palm Beach Wildcats were eliminated from the regional playoffs when they were blanked by the Atlantic Eagles 2-0. This season, the two are in the same district and even though the Wildcats extracted some measure of revenge by winning their first matchup of the campaign, last year’s season ending loss to the Eagles still irks them.

“Last year, the way we lost to them was just embarrassing,” said Royal Palm standout Kyle Houk, after his Wildcats suffered a no-hitter at the hands of the Eagles. “We want to come out and make sure that we take care of business this year.”

That’s exactly what Houk did in the top of the seventh inning on Tuesday night when the two teams met again at Little Fenway Park in Delray Beach. With his little brother Sean Houk representing the tying run at second base, Kyle turned on a 3-1 pitch and lined a shot down the third-base line for a double. It was his first hit of the night and it not only knotted things up, but also sparked a three-run rally that led to a 4-2 victory for the Wildcats.

Royal Palm Manager Bart Wible had no doubts his kids could come up big in the seventh after being stifled for much of the night by Eagles starter Stefan Leclerc. Once the younger Houk drew a walk and advanced to second on a passed ball, the manager’s confidence swelled.

“I had every confidence that we could,” said Wible. “I felt at that point that we could at least tie it up and extend the game. We were fortunate enough to put up three more, give ourselves a little cushion, and then Brandon Hernandez came in, shut the door, and we got the win.”

Up to that point, the night had been a lesson in frustration for the elder Houk. He flew out in his first two at-bats and had a bang-bang call at first go against him when he grounded to third in the fifth inning.

“I was having a really tough day, wasn’t seeing the ball that well,” Houk admitted. “My last at-bat, I stepped in thinking, if I see a good pitch, I’m going to hit it. I got to a 3-1 count and he threw me a fastball middle-in. That’s probably the best pitch for me to hit so I took a hack at it and hit it hard.”

The Wildcats were fighting an uphill battle all night after giving up two early runs to the Eagles. Shendell Winright took the mound for Royal Palm and quickly retired the first two batters of the game but then issued a free pass to Jarren Pinkney. George Engroff singled in the next at-bat and the two moved into scoring position on a passed ball with Duane Cyr at the plate. Cyr drove them both home with a single into the outfield, but made the third out when he tried to stretch it into a double.

Winright helped himself out in the second inning when he followed Jameel Edney’s double with one of his own to drive in the Wildcat’s first run of the night and cut the deficit in half. He set the side down in order in the bottom half of the inning, but Leclerc followed suit in the top of the third, inducing three straight fly outs to center field.

Royal Palm threatened again in the fourth frame when Sean Malynn and Winright were both able to get into scoring position with two away. They came away empty-handed when Leclerc notched one of his three strikeouts of the night to get out of the jam.

Shendell Winright struck out five from the hill and had an RBI double at the plate.

Malynn was in the middle of another Wildcats surge in the sixth, showing good hustle to beat the throw on a ground ball to shortstop and record the infield single with one out. Edney, who had a 2-for-3 night, followed with a hard hit ground ball past the shortstop. Atlantic’s left fielder, Brach Thomas, had to slide to his left to coral it in the left-center gap and came up firing to third base to try and nab Malynn, who slid in safe while Edney took second on the throw.

For the second time time in three innings, Royal Palm had the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. Once again, the rally fell short. Atlantic manager Steve Wilson turned to Engroff, a lefty, to spell Leclerc. Engroff responded by inducing a ground ball back to the mound and another to second base to record the final two outs of the inning.

When his team needed him the most, Winright was possibly at his best. Still trailing by one run in the bottom of the sixth, Royal Palm could ill afford to allow the Eagles to come away with any insurance runs. Winright dug deep and fanned the first two batters of the frame, both swinging.

“I gave it all that I had and it’s a team effort,” Winright said of his performance on the hill. “I just did what I could.”

Engroff squeaked a single through the right side of the infield in the next at-bat, but it proved inconsequential when Cyr fouled out to first base to end the inning and Winright’s night.

After Houk’s game-tying double in the seventh, the Wildcat’s went on to score two more unearned runs and Brandon Hernandez pitched a three-up-three-down bottom half to improve Royal Palm Beach’s season record to 12-9 overall and 10-3 in 7A-13. They trail both West Boca and Dwyer in the district and look to be locked into the third seed. After winning the district two seasons in a row, both Houk and Wible were forthcoming about what it would take for a three-peat.

“The main thing for us is we need to hit,” Houk claimed. “I think we’ve proven that we’re one of the best fielding and pitching teams in the county. There are nights we hit and nights we don’t. We’re kind of like Jekyll and Hyde with the bats right now.”

Gible had a somewhat simpler approach.

“Well, I think we’re going to have to beat Dwyer,” Wible said in regards to the only district opponent the Wildcats have not been able to garner a victory against this season. He was also quick to point out that the district is loaded with quality teams that can make a run once the playoffs begin. “We’re going to have to play some real good baseball. Anybody can knock anybody off on any given day. That’s one of the greatest things about baseball.”

Atlantic falls to 9-14-1 and 7-6 in 7A-13, and is situated firmly in fourth place in the district.

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