BY GENE NARDI
The Wellington High School baseball team traveled Wednesday, April 1 to play Royal Palm Beach High School in a non-district contest, and the Wolverines held on to win by a score of 5-1.
Wellington (12-8) jumped out early to a two-run lead, but the Wildcats (11-10) closed the gap by earning a run in the bottom of the first inning. The Wolverines held on to the lead through three innings of solid defensive play by both teams.
In the top of the fourth inning, it appeared as if the Wolverines would extend their lead, when Anthony Maniotis and Richie Ellis both hit singles, but the Royal Palm Beach defense rallied to close the inning, keeping the Wolverines off the plate.
In the top of the fifth inning, Wellington batter Rick Neyman bunted, but an error at first sent in Michael Scott to extend the Wellington lead to 3-1. Neyman tagged up on third for the Wolverines on a sacrifice fly to push Wellington to a 4-1 advantage.
Wellington continued to cause damage to the Royal Palm Beach defense. Alex Viscusi hit a single, and Phil Sieli hit an RBI single sending in Scott for a 5-1 lead to close out the top of the sixth inning.
Royal Palm Beach would occasionally grab a base hit but could not muster enough offense to drive in additional runs to close the gap after the first inning, and the Wolverines held on for the 5-1 victory.
ABOVE: Wellington first baseman Phil Sieli makes the catch just before Royal Palm Beach’s Troy Hamilton makes it to the base.
