Ferguson Bats Come Alive Late To Beat Palmetto

After scoring six runs in the first two innings the Palmetto Panthers looked to be the sure victor in last night’s game against the Ferguson Falcons at the Battle Down South Tournament. But Ferguson showed their character in the last inning, as down by five runs they came back to ultimately beat Palmetto 12-11.

Shortstop Riley Delgado started the scoring off for Palmetto with an RBI double down the left field line. His teammates William Schilling, Nick Gruener, Michael Wall, and Davis Marchus would all contribute to the Panthers six runs in the first two innings.

Ferguson struggled at the plate early, as Palmetto’s starting pitcher Brandon Kacer struck out four in just two and one thirds innings of work. Ferguson would put together a couple of hits in the third to get and designated hitter Chris Medina knocked a single to drive in Kevin Rodirguez, making the score 6-1 after three.

However, the Panthers retaliated in the fourth when Riley Delgado led off with a home run to left field. Then Schilling and Gruener got back to back hits again and eventually came around to score, helping Palmetto up their lead to 9-1.

Falcons’ reliever David Pedraja came in with two outs in the fourth inning to help stop the bleeding. He held Palmetto in check for the most part only allowing two runs late in the seventh inning.

Ferguson’s Alfred Rodriguez came up to lead off the bottom half of the fourth and shot a line single into left field off of reliever Nick Gruener. Rodriguez would cut the lead down to 9-2 after an error and a fielder’s choice would allow for him to score.

In the sixth inning, Ferguson’s bats woke up.

Asmiel Rodriguez started the inning off with a base hit into right field. Right fielder Rolando Gerena singled. After a few errors and a big RBI single by Kevin Rodriguez, the Falcons were right back in it as the score was cut down to 9-6.

In the seventh, once again Riley Delgado and Nick Gruener would go out for Palmetto and record two hits – more importantly, they both scored in the inning to push the lead back to five. Delgado finished his afternoon going four-for-five at the plate with a single, two doubles, and a home run. Gruener also had a big game finishing five-for-five with four singles, a double, and two RBIs. Gruener also pitched two and two thirds innings while striking out three Ferguson batters.

The magical seventh inning for the Falcons would begin with another single from first baseman Asmiel Rodriguez. Teammates Alfred Rodriguez and Pablo Nieves also got on base after a couple of singles, which loaded the bases. After Jose Brito hit a slow ground ball to the shortstop, a Palmetto error allowed for two runs to score. Then Chris Bec came to the plate and shot an RBI double off the left field fence that brought the Falcons within reach.

“Chris is a kid that has really surprised us this tournament,” Ferguson head coach Jose Novas said. “He’s a young sophomore and we were not expecting him to be contributing so fast so its a nice surprise.”

Kevin Rodriguez then came up with a hit to that knocked in another run, tying the game at 11. Another error for Palmetto allowed for the winning run to cross home plate for Ferguson.

“We were not playing good baseball for most of the day,” coach Jose Novas said. “I just told them to have quality at bats and force the young Palmetto team to make plays.”

Ferguson is familiar with coming back late in games this season. In its previous game, Ferguson was down 4-1 and scored six runs in the the sixth to win the game.

“We at least have realized that we can’t give up early in games because we can come back from big deficits,” coach Novas added. “Hopefully this will help us out come district play.”

The Falcons will take on Columbus Tuesday night and hope that their late inning rally will carry over to give them some runs early.

(Note – we were not allowed to take photos of the game. Sorry!)

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