Big Seventh Inning Lifts Atlantic Over Royal Palm

Just called up from JV, Justin Varisco played the seventh inning hero by driving in the go-ahead run.

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The district 7A-13 race is shaping up to be a neck-and-neck affair. All but one of its seven teams are within a game or two of each other in the district standings. On Tuesday night two of those teams in the Royal Palm Beach Wildcats and the Atlantic Eagles met to try and provide some clarity. Instead, the result only served to shake things up more, as visiting Atlantic walked away with a 5-0 victory that evened out both team’s district mark at 3-3.

“This is a strong district,” said Eagles Manager Steve Wilson. “Everybody’s equal. On any given night, anybody can win, and the bottom line is we were able to come over here and win.”

For much of the season, pitching has been the Wildcats’ biggest strength. Behind a duo of sub 1.00 ERA pitchers in Tristan McKenzie and Nick Fernandez, they had won four of their last five contests and seemed to have been hitting their stride after a 1-3 start. On Tuesday, it was Fernandez’s turn on the mound and he was as sharp as usual, hanging six zeros before the Eagles finally broke through in the top of the seventh inning to snap a scoreless tie.

With one out, Duane Cyr was hit with a pitch, and then Colin Kosuch reached via an error. At that point, Wildcats Manager Kason Gabbard turned to lefty Jesus Pina to get his team out of the jam. The move looked to be paying off when Pina struck out the first batter he faced. But sophomore Justin Varisco chalked up his first hit of the night in the next at-bat. Varisco hit a lazy fly ball into left that dropped just in front of the charging fielder, allowing Cyr’s courtesy runner, Nick Robinson, to cross home for the first run of the night. Varisco advanced to second on the throw.

“I’ve never really been that good against lefties,” said Varisco, who was just recently called up from JV. “But I had to come through for my team.”

An ensuing walk to Alex Cordes, who had two singles in his three previous at-bats, loaded the bases. Nicholas Cortese was hit by a pitch to drive in Kosuch, giving the Eagles an insurance run. Michael Buckley then blew the game open by shooting a bases-clearing double down the left field line.

“I made an adjustment in my last at-bat,” explained Buckley, who had been hit-less up until that point. “I was seeing it pretty well and I was trying to get some insurance runs, even a base hit to get on base and get another run. I didn’t think it would come through like that.”

Nick Fernandez took a tough loss for the Wildcats, hanging six zeroes before the Eagles finally scored on him in the seventh.

For the Eagles, Stefan Leclerc took the mound to oppose Fernandez, and was his usual reliable self. He pitched a complete-game shutout while allowing five hits, while not issuing a free pass until the final frame. The fact that he only struck out two batters is indicative of how well his defense played for him.

“It feels great to have the defense behind me,” Leclerc said. “Last year when we played here we probably had eight errors. This year, I said at the beginning of the year that our defense was going to be much improved, and it’s holding strong right now.”

Royal Palm’s Troy Hamilton doubled with two out in the first inning, but was gunned down by the Atlantic right fielder Cortese when he tried to come home on a blooper by Brandon Hernandez. In the third, Cyr picked Zach Odell off of first base from his catchers position to negate a lead-off single. Shortstop Luis Beltran did his part in the fifth, diving to his left to spear a hot shot off the bat of Luke Hollander.

In the sixth, Buckley neutralized the Wildcats’ biggest threat of the night. With runners on first and second and only one out, Hamilton hit a hard one-hopper to third base. Buckley snared it, quickly tagged the bag for the force, then threw cleanly to first for the inning-ending double play. The play was a welcome relief for Buckley, who said he had the “yips” before the game and was having a hard time throwing across the diamond.

The Eagles’ defense was not done yet. Cordes got a good jump on a hard fly ball by Hernandez and chased it down, making a sliding catch in the right-center gap to prevent a lead-off double in the bottom of the seventh. It was a big play for a big out when the Wildcats had few left to work with.

“Well, tonight, I feel like I was really seeing the ball good off the bat,” Cordes said about his show-stopping catch. “I was able to get a good jump on it, just playing behind my pitcher.”

Shortstop Luis Beltran was one of many defensive standouts for the Eagles, making a diving catch in the fifth inning.

The Wildcats defense made a run-saving play of its own in the fifth inning. Speedy Brach Thomas led off with a triple by piercing the right-center field gap. Hernandez then fielded a hard ground ball at shortstop and looked to third to hold Thomas, before throwing to first for the out. Thomas broke for home on the throw, but the first baseman McKenzie fired a bullet to home and the catcher Hamilton applied the tag to maintain the scoreless tie.

The Eagles improved their overall record to 6-6. It is a record that speaks to the up-and-down season they have had so far. After a 1-4 start, they battled back to .500, before dropping two of three prior to Tuesday’s game.

“Royal Palm’s a very strong baseball program, and it was a big win for us,” Wilson said. “I’m pleased with it.”

The loss drops Royal Palm’s overall record to .500. While still very much in the thick of the race, Gabbard believes his team is capable of bigger and better things.

“We just couldn’t get a big hit,” said Gabbard. “The biggest thing is being aggressive the whole game. I want these kids to put 100 percent effort in. But sometimes they lose focus or what-not, and those are the results that happen.”

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