Pali High Baseball Pitches to Poly Tourney Triumphs

If its starting pitchers can keep performing like they did in the first two games, the Palisades High baseball team could be contending for the City Section’s inaugural Open Division championship in May.

Lucas Braun threw a one-hitter in last Friday’s season opener, a 3-0 shutout of North Hollywood in the first round of the Poly Tournament.  The Dolphins managed only two hits—a single by catcher Benji Taylor and an RBI single by Jacob Kalt—and Will Coquillard hit a sacrifice fly to plate an insurance run.

Palisades was back ion the diamond Saturday at George Robert Field for a key early season matchup against Taft. The game was scoreless until the sixth, when Taylor belted a two-RBI triple. Palisades’ only other run was a third-inning double by Cord Vanley.

“I took a two-strike approach, he threw a curve the other way and I went with it,” Taylor said. “We’re treating every game like a big game to show the [seeding] committee what we’re about.”

Coquillard retired the first two batters in the seventh, but Taft got a run before Coquillard ended the game with his seventh strikeout.