BY GENE NARDI
The Royal Palm Beach High School baseball team hosted rival Seminole Ridge High School on Friday, March 10, scoring the lone run in the sixth inning to lift the Wildcats past the Hawks 1-0.
The game remained scoreless throughout the opening innings. Stellar pitching from Royal Palm Beach’s Dylan Lloyd and Seminole Ridge’s Andrew Attaway made it challenging for batters to connect with the ball.
Both teams, on occasion, found a pitch to send the ball out, but the batters’ exhausting work at the plate was snuffed out by the work put in by the defenses.
Tarik Latchmansingh was the first Wildcat to strike the ball for a single in the second inning, but he was later thrown out.
In the third inning, the Hawks made some waves when Kevin Devine stole second base. He then attempted to steal third in an effort to make something happen but was tagged out.
In the bottom of the third inning, Royal Palm Beach (5-3) managed to get runners on first and second with no outs on the board, but a stingy Hawk defense deleted any threat the Wildcats had planned to get across the plate.
The top of the fourth inning, Seminole Ridge’s Dustin Reville launched a double deep into center field that fell just shy of going over the fence, with only one out. The play would later be extinguished by the Wildcat defense.
The game would break open in the bottom of the sixth inning when Latchmansingh made a single. Catcher Nick Toney struck a double that pushed Latchmansingh to third base.
The second of two errors proved costly for the Hawks. A mishandled ball gave Latchmansingh the chance to make a dash for the plate, and he crossed unscathed to lift the Wildcats into the lead 1-0.
The Hawks (3-5) could do little on offense with relief pitcher Sean Houck finishing out the top of the seventh inning. The lone run was all that Royal Palm Beach needed to walk away with the win.
The Wildcats had games this week against Palm Beach Central and Suncoast high school, while the Hawks had games against Olympic Heights and Palm Beach Central, but results were not available by press time.
ABOVE: Tarik Latchmansingh sprints across the plate in the sixth inning for the game’s only score and the Wildcats’ winning margin.
