Small Ball Leads Olympic Heights Past Boynton Beach

Aaron Weldy tossed a complete game for the Lions

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When the Boyton Beach Tigers traveled to Olympic Heights to take on the Lions in HSBN’s Palm Beach Game of the Week on Friday night, it was a battle of two young teams searching for momentum after winning their previous contests.

Spurred on by a complete game by starting pitcher Aaron Weldy and a pair of 2-for-3 plate performances by Dareese Gutierrez and Brandon O’Bryant, it was the Lions that emerged from the fray victorious, getting the better of their newly-minted district opponents by a score of 5-1. The win gives Olympic Heights their first district victory of the season and improves their overall record to 3-6-1.

Weldy breezed through the first three innings, needing just 27 pitches to work his way through the Boynton batting order without allowing a hit or base runner.

In the meantime, the Lions offense exhibited sound fundamentals at the plate, sacrificing batters and hitting behind runners to manufacture runs and build a comfortable lead. It is an approach that second-year manager Casey Beck emphasizes and he was proud of the way his kids executed under the Friday night lights.

“When I first got here I saw what we had and I knew with the cards I was dealt we were going to have to be a ‘small ball’ team,” Beck said. “They’re finally buying into what I’m trying to sell them. I’ve told them all year long, ‘When we get teams on the ropes we can’t knock them out,’ so I told them we needed a Buster Douglas knock-out tonight and it was a huge win for us.”

Jason Patel began the Lions’ night at the plate with a single back up the box. After advancing to second on a wild pitch, he was moved to third when the next batter grounded out to second base. With one out, Gutierrez also grounded to the left side of the infield, giving Patel the opportunity to race home for the first run of the game.

Jack Agnese came around to score after hitting a double in the fourth.

The third inning saw more of the same approach from Olympic Heights. After a lead-off single, Gutierrez attempted a sacrifice bunt. But rather than jog down the line and just give himself up, he went full speed, forcing an errant throw that not only gave him time to reach second but also allowed the previous baserunner, his brother Carlos, to come in for the score. After Dareese moved to third in the next at-bat, O’Bryant brought him in with a base hit through the right side of the infield, making it 3-0.

With their first looks at Weldy behind them, the Boynton bats were finally able to figure him out. After a quick out to start the inning, Jack Agnese teed off on his first offering from Weldy and split the left-center gap for a double. The Tigers proceeded to give Heights a taste of their own medicine. Zach Fernandes lobbed a base hit into shallow right field to advance Agnese to third and then Kaelin Dunn went opposite field, ripping a groundball down the first base line for the RBI.

While Weldy made his presence known on the mound, he also quietly put together a pretty good night in the batter’s box. After hustling out what amounted to a swinging bunt for a single in his first at-bat, he led off the fourth inning with a solid single down the left field line. Three batters later, Dareese Gutierrez batted him in with a double to extend the lead to 4-1.

“I knew the guy was throwing first pitch strike a lot,” Dareese Gutierrez said about his RBI. “I thought I could take advantage of it so I swung and put it right up the middle over the guys head.”

A lead-off double by O’Bryant in the fifth led to the Lions fifth and final score of the night.

From there, things began to get a little more hairy on the mound for Weldy. His defense erased a lead-off single in the sixth with a rare 8-4 double play, but their only miscue of the night gave Boynton another lead-off runner in the seventh. Weldy’s second walk of the game, coupled with a knock by Luis Tavarez, loaded the bases full of Tigers and brought the tying run to the plate for Boynton.

Brandon O’Bryant went 2-for-3 with a double, RBI and run scored.

Rather than fold under the pressure, Weldy, a veteran junior who has played varsity since he was a freshman, rose to the occasion. He had only fanned three batters thus far, instead pitching to contact and letting his defense work behind him, but with the game on the line he set the next two batters down on strikes to secure the win.

“My defense, I have complete faith in them,” Weldy said about his approach. “I don’t go out there trying to strike people out. That’s not who I am. It would be cool if I could do that but I just pitch strikes and trust my defense to make plays. I did it for my fall team and I love closing. It’s my favorite thing in the world.”

With just three seniors on their roster, the 1-6 Tigers are a young team with strong leadership in veteran manager John Drouin. The coaching staff believes that if the team starts playing with the same fire that they brought to the final-inning rally, they can start making a mark and open some eyes in district 7A-14.

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