Photos by Steve Galluzzo
The season is not even half over, but the Palisades High baseball team treated last Friday’s matchup versus Venice like a playoff game—and for good reason.
Two days earlier the Gondos had rallied for six runs in the last three innings to prevail 8-6, snapping the Dolphins’ 72-game Western League winning streak dating back to March 20, 2017. Palisades needed a victory to pull even with its archrival atop the standings and keep its hopes of a sixth straight league title alive.
After spotting Venice a three-run lead in the first inning, the Dolphins got two hits apiece from Roman Hawk, Conor Greene and Isaac Buenrostro while starting pitcher Reece Frankel scattered four hits with six strikeouts in five innings as Palisades went on to win 8-4 to split the series and seize first place based on head-to-head run differential.
The Dolphins began their comeback in the third as Buenrostro hit an RBI double and scored on a grounder. In the fourth, Greene scored on an error and Buenrostro hit an RBI single to give Palisades a 4-3 lead.
Hawk had an RBI single and Ramberg drew a bases-loaded walk to force home another run in the fifth.
Venice had two runners on when Hawk scooped up a hard-hit grounder at third, whirled and fired to first for the final out.
“It’s one of those that takes a tricky hop where you just spin, throw and pray it gets there,” Hawk said.
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