Park Cities News – Thursday, March 29, 2007
Highland Park picks up shot in the arm with Wyatt Holliday performance
By Art Finley
The 2007 Highland Park varsity Scots baseball team came through with a clutch win Tuesday night at Scotland Yard as they shutout the Greenville Lions to keep their playoff hopes alive. The win moves HP to 2-4 in 10-4A.
The Scots got another dominating pitching outing from Wyatt Holliday Tuesday night as he threw six innings of two-hit ball with 11 strikeouts. Highland Park’s Taylor Lee pitched a scoreless seventh inning to preserve the much-needed victory.
Offensively, Scot right-fielder Seth Gardner continued his timely hitting with a pair of doubles for HP. Scot Captain Will Russell also racked up a pair of RBI’s as HP was never threatened.
Highland Park used the momentum they built Saturday at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington where they scored a season-high of 17 runs in a 17-8 slugfest with 5A Colleyville Heritage. Highland Park scored seven runs in the first and eight in the fifth.
Highland Park took full advantage of four hits, three walks and three errors by the Panthers to grab a commanding, 7-0 lead after just one-inning of play.
Heritage turned the table on Highland Park with a five-run third inning. Patrick Kennen delivered a two-RBI double to lead the rally.
The Panther showed why they are an elite program as they tied the game at 7-7 in the fourth. Daniel Pugnetti drove in two Panthers that drew walks, tying the game.
The Scots settled the issue in the bottom half of the fifth inning with eight runs. Highland Park batted around with Jonathan Perlman starting the uprising by being hit with a pitch. Perlman later collected a triple. In all, the Scots got a double from Hainsfurher, a single from captain Nick Flabiano, a two-RBI single by Gardner and RBI singles from Ryan O'Dwyer and Ryan Miller to build a 15-7 lead.
Highland Park added two more runs with an O'Dwyer triple to end the scoring at 17-8 at the home of the Texas Rangers.
Highland Park faces another pressure situation Friday night when they travel to Tillery Park in Mesquite for another 10-4A game with the West Mesquite Wranglers. The Scots will travel to Terrell next Tuesday as they look to keep pace with Mesquite Poteet (6-0), J.J. Pearce (5-1) and Rockwall-Heath (5-1).