COLUMBIA, MD — All season long, Wilde Lake coach Kareem Penn has been trying to patch enough pitching together to buy his potent offense enough time to outslug the opponent. The plan has usually involved getting through the first three or four innings with a lead, then handing the ball over to lefty Michael Palasits to shut it down the rest of the way.
On Thursday at Long Reach, Penn tried a different approach: he put his best pitcher on the mound to start the game, and Palasits delivered with an 8-1 complete game victory.
"We came in today and said we're going to ride the hot horse, and that's Mike. He's been doing it for us the entire season," said Penn, whose team ended a four-game losing streak with the win. "We needed to stop the slide so we went with Mike P. to get that done."
Palasits allowed only five hits, struck out six, walked two and hit one batter, and needed only 108 pitches to get through the Long Reach line-up three times. The Wildecats defense was also excellent, especially third baseman Wyatt Oler who handled three tricky chances with mastery.
"You see guys throw strikes and play solid defense, and you're going to have a great chance to win," said Long Reach coach Mike Repsher, whose team defeated Wilde Lake, 12-0, earlier this season at the Glen Burnie tournament. "Their pitcher did a great job of getting ahead in the count and they played great defense. That's a winning recipe right there."
Palasits threw first-pitch strikes to 23 of the 28 batters he faced on Thursday.
"I walked a few batters toward the middle of the game, but I just focused on throwing it low and stayed mentally focused," said Palasits, who threw a variety of breaking balls and offspeed pitches in the later innings. "Toward the beginning my fastball was pretty strong so I tried to throw more fastball-curve. As the game went on (catcher Matthew Aubin) started calling more offspeed pitches and I liked that. Once my breaking ball was working that was my key to success."
Palasits hadn't pitched more than three innings in an outing since he threw four innings of relief in a nine-inning win over Marriotts Ridge on April 13.
"Starting the game I had to be mentally prepared to pitch the whole game. I had to stay focused the whole time and not get excited if I gave up no runs in three innings," he said. "This game was about more endurance and more precision with my breaking ball."
Long Reach put runners in scoring position with one out in each of the first two innings, but Palasits got strikeouts to avoid damage both times.
The Lightning loaded the bases with no outs in the third when senior Erik Gates drew a leadoff eight-pitch walk, senior Chris Wessels was hit by a pitch, and junior Josh Kulina singled up the first base line. But Palasits once again wriggled out of trouble when a Mark Wicklein line drive directly at second baseman Jared Mouton turned into a double play, followed by an inning ending ground out to first.
"(Wicklein) hit a shot and Jared made a nice play, he was right there on top of second. That saved me there, that could have big runs for them. I got a little lucky, but I'll take what I can get," Palasits said. "To get out of something like that definitely helps, because that inning could have been a lot longer."
The Wildecats gave their ace immediate run support in the top of the first, when Mouton drew a leadoff walk, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on an RBI single by shortstop Sergio Irizarry-Cruz (2-3, RBI, 2 R, SB), who scored two batters later on a two-out RBI single by James Thomas (4-4, 2 RBI, 2 R).
Long Reach scratched out its only run in the fourth, when Sam Lobdell drew a leadoff walk, advanced on a Nick Moy single, moved to third on a sac bunt by Christian Cozad, and scored on an RBI ground out by Nick Bailey.
The Wildecats (5-7) blew the game wide open in the fifth, though, scoring five runs on three hits, three walks, an error and a wild pitch. The big blow was a two-out, two-run bloop single to shallow left field by none other than Palasits (2-3, 3 RBI), the No. 9 batter.
"I got a bloop there, but they hit a few bloops on me," he said. "I hit one there so that's fair, I thought."
The loss dropped Long Reach to 5-7, but the Lightning have already eclipsed their conference win total from a year ago.
"We have some seniors who are really good leaders who worked hard early in the preseason and really started to build their confidence even before they stepped out here," Repsher said.
Wessels, who has committed to play for Division I Mount St. Mary's University, made an outstanding running catch in center field on a well-hit ball off the bat of Palasits in the top of the seventh, and Kulina and Moy collected two hits each for the Lightning.
WL (5-7) 200 050 1 - 8 11 0
LR (5-7) 000 100 0 - 1 5 2
Palasits and Aubin. Wessels, Wicklein (5), Poler (7) and Seanz-Diez.