Six-run third carries Palm Beach Gardens past Dwyer in baseball

Wednesday, March 17, 2010
by Paul Ivice

Darren Hansen's two-run home run keyed the host Gators' six-run outburst in the third inning en route to a 9-1 win Wednesday night over Dwyer in a high school baseball game.

Palm Beach Gardens' victory evened both teams' records — the Gators at 4-4 and the Panthers at 5-5.

The Gators led 2-0 on two unearned runs in the first. Hansen came up with one out in the third and Tyler Dittmer, who had been hit by a pitch, on first.

Hansen, a sophomore catcher, said he was looking for a pitch outside that he could hit to the right side to advance the runner, "but he pitched it in and I pulled it."

After that, "the inning just seemed to snowball," Dwyer coach Frank Torre said.

Junior J.D. Underwood doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Junior Tom Williams singled to score Underwood and then stole second.

Taylor Maura, a sophomore, followed with a single that advanced Underwood to third and ended the night for Dwyer's starter, senior Jake Caltrider.

Underwood scored on a passed ball before senior Brandon Welch tripled off junior reliever Bryan Coughlin. Welch then scored on senior Christian Cancio's sacrifice fly.

The Gators' starter, senior Brandon Perry, scattered six hits over five shutout innings.

Perry "did a nice job of working out of trouble with some nice defense behind him," Gardens coach Joe Russo said.

The Gators turned double plays in the second and third innings. They also turned away Dwyer's best chance to score against Perry when Underwood made a quick relay of Cancio's throw from center field to nail junior Brad Borosak, who was trying to score from second on Patrick Pinak's two-out single.

The Panthers finally broke through for a run on three hits in the sixth off junior Tim Jeffrey, but Jeffrey finished the game without further trouble.

"We didn't seem to get the timely hits when we needed them and they did," Torre said.