Royal Palm Beach Wins Florida League Invitational

The 2017 Florida League Invitational Tournament champion Royal Palm Beach Wildcats.

The Royal Palm Beach Wildcats wanted to play in the Florida League high School Invitational Tournament to face the great competition. The Wildcats saw the best of the best this week in the Orlando tournament, and they beat them all. Their fourth and final victory came under the lights at historic Sanford Memorial Stadium, and Friday’s 6-3 win over Jacksonville Bolles earned Royal Palm Beach the tournament title.

The Wildcats rallied for the deciding runs in the top of the fourth inning to erase a two-run deficit, and added two runs in the fifth to give them some breathing room. Reliever Ryan Lange did the rest, as the sophomore came in and shut down the Bulldog offense to earn the victory.

Royal Palm Beach (11-4) started the tournament by defeating Vero Beach, the #7 club in the Palm Beach Power Rankings who leaves tournament play with a 7-3 mark. The Wildcats then held off Timber Creek 2-1, defeating the #9 team in the HSBN Orlando Power Rankings. The semifinals brought a showdown with Hagerty, Orlando’s #2 club that finished last season as the state runners up, and again Royal Palm left victorious with a 5-3 decision. Friday night it culminated with a title tilt over the defending 5A state champions, the #9 club in the Jacksonville Power Rankings.

Nick Toney put his team in front with a run in the second. Toney singled, advanced on an error and came in on an RBI double from Taylor Sellers. That gave sophomore starter Alex Morejon some breathing room, and he took that lead into the bottom of the third before running into trouble. Bolles (9-3) came back and put three runs on the board, prompting the call to the bullpen for Lange. Morejon exited having allowed three earned runs on four hits and three walks, while striking out two.

The offense stopped from there, as Lange recorded the final 13 outs without allowing any hits, walks or runs. He struck out five while throwing 36 of his 52 pitches for strikes.

After Lange got them out of the third, the offense struck back for the winning runs with its next swings. Tarik Latchmansingh was hit by a pitch, Toney singled and then both runners advanced when the ball got past the outfielder. Morejon followed with an RBI single and Sellers then tied it up with an RBI single. JB Santiago was next with the big hit that drove in Morejon with the winning run.

Latchmansingh and Ryan Pinto both reached base and scored in the fifth to give Royal Palm Beach some insurance runs. The way Lange was throwing, they proved not even to be necessary.

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