Baseball Rebounds after El Camino Loss

The Palisades High baseball team pushed its record back over .500 this past week, winning two of its three games to improve to 5-4 on the year.

It could have been a perfect three-for-three, save for a bang-bang play at the plate that ended last Friday’s game against El Camino Real as PaliHi lost, 4-3, at home. In a game that head coach Mike Voelkel referred to as “a good measuring stick,” the Dolphins more than held their own against one of the City’s toughest teams.

After falling behind right off the bat on a three-run, first-inning home run, the Dolphins hung around on the strength of another strong pitching performance by senior Spencer Simon, who allowed just one run over the next four innings.

Pali pulled to within a run in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single by senior outfielder Sam Wasserman and appeared poised to at least tie the game in the final inning after junior outfielder Julian Hart led off with a walk and Simon sacrificed him to second.

However, Wasserman flied out and junior infielder Harrison McElroy came up as the final hope. McElroy smoked a line drive to left, but because the ball was hit so hard, Hart ultimately was thrown out at the plate to end the game.

“I was just excited that we were in the game,” Voelkel said. “It’s never easy to swallow a loss, but as far as a coach is concerned, you’re looking for your kids to play hard, be engaged and care, and we did that. We got ourselves into situations to be successful, but they just made a few more plays.”

Voelkel had stressed the importance of having a short memory after the tough loss to El Camino Real, and his team clearly received the message.

“Our biggest thing is to be mature and then repeat it,” the coach said. “We need to flush out this loss and come back with the same approach against Torrance.”

Showing that maturity and resiliency, the Dolphins responded less than 24 hours later by defeating Torrance, 8-6, on the strength of two doubles and two runs scored by Hart, a two-run single by sophomore infielder Joshua Holmes and three scoreless relief innings by Alex Flutie. The junior fanned four to earn the victory after McElroy started.

On Monday this week, the Dolphins opened Western League play by dispatching Fairfax, 10-2, which is nothing new for Voelkel. The coach is now 65-3 against Western League opponents since taking over as coach in 2007.

Senior outfielder Joey Dills, who has been strong on the mound as well this season, had a pair of doubles to help lead the offense, while junior Anthony Poulos came one out away from a complete game, striking out five.

PaliHi will visit Fairfax today before resuming play in the Redondo Tournament on Saturday. Its next Western League game after spring break is April 9 at Westchester, and its next home game is April 11 against Westchester at 3 p.m.