O’Neal, South Fork Take Down Port St. Lucie In 4-1 Win

Normally, the team that walks the most and displays the best patience has a better chance at winning due to not swinging at bad pitches, but Thursday night’s game in South Fork may argue that. Despite giving up six walks and allowing a seventh man to reach base via a hit-by-pitch, Bulldogs pitching — led by Tyler O’Neal and Brendan Kudlinski — held down the fort and led South Fork to a 4-1 win over Port St. Lucie.

The loss is the first of the season for the Jaguars (6-1), one of the highest ranked clubs in the Palm Beach Power Rankings.

Facing a dangerous Jaguars offense O’Neal struck out five and threw 61% of his 70 pitches for strikes. Throwing first-pitch strikes to twelve of the twenty-one batters he faced, O’Neal looked sharp and didn’t allow an earned run in the win. Port St. Lucie’s lone run came by way of an error. Reliever Brendan Kudlinski struck out three and gave up just one hit.

Leading the way on offense for the Bulldogs was senior captain and catcher Andrew Carson, who had an RBI single in the bottom of the third to put his team on the scoreboard. Run number two came later in that same inning and was scored by junior Connor Annear, after teammate Mark Reuwer was hit by a pitch. South Fork later added two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth thanks to an RBI single from Jacob Travis and an error that scored Kudlinski.

Port St. Lucie most definitely was patient at the plate, with six batters, including the first three hitters in Robert Ocasio, Ian Claudio, and Leo Horacio, all reaching base thanks to walks. Zach Taglieri, Cavin Lezeau, and Andrew Brancaccio had the other three walks, while Ocasio was also hit by a pitch to lead off the ballgame. Ches Goodman was the only hitter of the team’s top seven to not draw a walk, and he had two hits.

Taking the hill for Port St. Lucie was Zach Taglieri, who threw three innings and struck out three men while recording first-pitch strikes against ten of the seventeen batters he faced. Troy Martinez, who relieved Taglieri following the third inning, threw 67% of his pitches for strikes across his three innings of work.

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