Palaez Shines In Shutout Victory Over Reagan

It was a return to conventional winning for the Goleman Gators thanks to a dazzling, complete-game shutout by their starter Micheal Palaez on Monday afternoon. The No. 9 ranked team in the latest High School Baseball Network power rankings got some timely hitting and let Micheal Palaez handle the mound work to take down the Reagan Bison 6-0 at Florida Memorial University.

Goleman (9-2) clinched its fifth win in the last six games, and will go for number seven on Thursday against the Miami Brito Panthers. The Gators are also currently in first place in 6A-15 with a perfect 6-0 mark.

“We’re taking it one game at a time. We have three guys on the mound that we really rely on and we feel confident every time they pitch,” said Goleman Manager Jose Lopez. “That is what we are concentrating on right now. We have Brito on Thursday and that is what we are going to think about right now.”

Palaez went the distance to earn the win and shutout while giving up four hits and striking out nine batters. The senior is now 4-0 with a 1.03 ERA.

“I didn’t try to go out and do too much; I just pitched to my defense, and without those guys we wouldn’t be where we are right now,” said Micheal Palaez. “They put me in and I do what I have to do.”

The reserved Palaez came out of a two-out jam with runners on second and third base in the sixth inning unscathed, striking out the final batter of the inning on a nasty curveball that froze the hitter. He retired the side in order in the first, second and third.

The Gators jumped ahead early with a run plated in the second inning. A Jeremie Garcia deep fly ball to right field brought home Michael Avendano, who hustled around the bags a one out-triple down the left field line earlier in the inning. Avendano went 2-for-3, adding a single and another run scored.

The Gators didn’t plate another run until the bottom of the fifth inning when Erick Delgado hit a fly ball to left field that was misplayed and ruled an error. This allowed Thomas Hernandez to score from first base, upping the Gators lead over the Bison to 2-1.

Four insurance runs were added in the bottom of the sixth when Brandon Paez belted an RBI triple that scored Avendano, who led off with a single. Two consecutive hit by pitches at the expense of Julian Reyes and Kevin Perez loaded the bases for Ricardo Jimenez, who earned an RBI with a walk. After Bison reliever Guillermo Delgado struck out the next batter for the first out of the inning, Gators junior Thomas Hernandez drove in Reyes with a sacrifice fly to right field. That was followed by an Erik Delgado RBI single that drove in Perez to complete the scoring.

During Monday’s game it almost seamed as if sophomore starter Kevin Feireabend had somehow upset the baseball gods. Pitching-wise, Feireabend (1-2) was battling stride for stride with his counter part and for five-and-a-third innings had his team within one swing of the bat from tying the ball game. The sophomore recorded five strikeouts and two walks, while allowing two earned runs on four hits before turning it over to the bullpen.

“That is a good Reagan team that we just played,” said Lopez. “A couple key hits and good pitching was the difference today.”

Aside from Feireabend pitching well up until the sixth, he showed a great resiliency and was tested many times throughout the game. He stranded Gator runners in scoring position in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings. After hitting a batter in the fourth, followed by a stolen base, Feireabend got back-to-back strikeouts in an impressive fashion to end the inning.

Unfortunately for Feireabend, the Bison offense simply couldn’t do anything to rattle Palaez. The Bison didn’t advance a runner past second base until the fifth inning, when Christian Delos Santos singled with two outs. Delos Santos then advanced to third on a single by Feireabend, but was stranded there after Palaez froze the last batter for a called strike three.

In the top half of the sixth, the leadoff man Jose Negron singled and stole second to start the inning. But the next batter hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop, who was being forced to his right and opted for the closer play by getting the out at third.

The next opportunity for the Bison to put a run on the board was in the seventh inning. After a leadoff strikeout, Yadan Hernandez was able to draw a walk and then Delos Santos singled, putting runners on first and second. After another strikeout, the Bison loaded the bases on a two-out walk to senior Hector Avilan, setting the potential for two-out rally and come-from-behind victory. Instead, a fly ball to left field ended the game and kept Goleman as the victor.

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