Jett Teegardin had seven strikeouts in Palisades’ 5-4 victory over Narbonne at the San Diego Lions Tournament on April 1.
Photo: STEVE GALLUZZO
By STEVE GALLUZZO
CTN Contributor
After a slow start, the Palisades High baseball team is hitting its stride under first-year coach Jordan Myrow.
Since losing their first six games, the Dolphins have gone 8-2 to even their record thanks to timely hitting, better consistency on the mound and improved defensive play.
Palisades recently made its annual trip south to participate in the San Diego Lions Tournament and wound up going 3-1 in Division 3A—the fifth-highest consisting of 14 teams (seven of them representing the City Section).
The Dolphins opened the tournament Monday, March 30 and prevailed 2-1 over San Fernando. Pitcher Caleb Gitlin enjoyed his most effective outing of the season, throwing a three-hitter with 11 strikeouts in seven innings. Jack O’Brien had an RBI single and the decisive run scored on a dropped fly ball in the outfield.
The next day Palisades saw its five-game winning streak snapped with a 13-2 loss to Mission Vista of Oceanside. Joseph Levy belted an RBI triple and scored a run, but the Dolphins’ batters were held in check by Newton Burnside, who allowed five hits in six innings and went 2-for-4 at the plate with a double and three runs scored as the Timberwolves plated seven runs in the first inning.
There was no fooling the Dolphins on April 1 as they forged a four-run lead in the first five innings then held on to edge Narbonne 5-4 behind six strong innings from ace pitcher Jett Teegardin, who allowed seven hits and struck out seven. Zev  Welles-Binns got the last three outs. On offense, Conor Greene hit an RBI triple while Hudson Ramberg, Ethan Davis, Dylan Idelson and Asher Cohen each had two hits.
Palisades’ bats came alive in their finale April 2 against Clark from Las Vegas. Highlighting the 14-5 victory were three hits apiece by Greene and Levy (who led the charge with 4 RBIs), and two each by Ramberg, Cohen, Brown and O’Brien. Charlie Meyers tossed 4.2 innings and got three strikeouts while Ramberg struck out the side in his one inning of work.
In their four tournament contests the Dolphins pounded out 40 hits and scored 23 runs while committing eight errors.
Davis leads the squad in batting average (.389), hits (14) and RBIs (13) and is tied in steals (8) with Jack Kurland. Teegardin has compiled a 1.62 earned run average with 33 strikeouts in 34.2 innings pitched.
The Dolphins (8-8, 3-1) resume Western League action April 8 against LACES. They are one game behind front running Venice (7-7, 4-0) with eight league games left.