Photos by Steve Galluzzo
A baseball season is long. Taking it one game at a time is hard, but so far the Palisades High varsity squad has done just that and as a result the Dolphins are off to their fastest start in decades thanks to dominant starting pitching, timely hitting, aggressive baserunning and reliable defense.
The trend continued Saturday at George Robert Field in a 7-0 shutout of Sylmar in the ECR Classic. The mound belonged to lefty ace Mason Edwards, who allowed one hit with 10 strikeouts in five innings to lower his earned run average to 0.32 and improve to 3-0. Junior right-hander John Iacono pitched two innings, fanning six of the eight batters he faced. It marked Palisades’ fourth shutout in 10 games. At the plate, Amari Yolas, Nate Sterling and Alex Loos each had two hits as the host Dolphins (9-1) built a 4-0 lead after four innings against the Spartans.
The day before, Palisades kept its Western League winning streak intact with a 10-0 five-inning victory over Fairfax.
Ryan Higgins sparkled on the hill, striking out 12 batters and giving up one single and one base on balls in his complete game masterpiece. Yolas had three hits, three runs, two runs batted in and two steals. Luca Ruggierio batted home two runs and scored two while Matthew Rayos belted a two-run single and Sterling doubled and stole two bases.
Palisades last lost a league game in 2017 when it got swept by Venice and the teams met with first place on the Tuesday (at Venice) and are scheduled to play at 3 p.m. today at Palisades in the final game before Spring Break.
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