Royal Palm blasts Park Vista, 12-2
ROYAL PALM BEACH — Paige Houck earned a birthday serenade Tuesday night, and for good reason.
The Royal Palm Beach left fielder went 3 for 4 with two runs, and Chelsea Gibbins added three hits to lead the Wildcats to a 12-2 five-inning victory against Park Vista in a battle of ranked teams.
Houck , who turned 15 Tuesday, fini shed with a double and two singles for fourth-ranked Royal Palm, which finished with 15 hits.
“I told the girls tonight that on the first good pitch, drive the ball,” Wildcats coach Dave Hir said. “We put runners in motion again tonight — hit and runs — and drove the ball. Those things put pressure on a defense.”
The Wildcats (12-4) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by Nicole Hayslip.
The play scored Houck, who led off with a double.
Sixth-ranked Park Vista (9-3) put runners on second and third with no outs second inning. But Royal Palm Beach pitcher Jaime Tino (12-4) worked out of the jam, retiring the final three batters on two ground balls and a strikeout.
Tino also worked out of trouble in the third, recordi ng her t hi rd a nd f our t h strikeouts to strand a pair of Cobras’ runners and preserve the Wildcats’ 1-0 lead.
The senior helped her cause in the bottom of the third, lining an RBI single down the left-field line to score Royal Palm Beach’s fourth run.
The Wildcats added two more r uns i n t he i nni ng to take a 6-0 lead. Hayslip started the scoring with a two-run triple, and Phoenix Stricker closed it with an RBI double.
Royal Palm scored three more runs in the fourth to take a 9-0 lead, nearly working its way through the lineup for the second consecutive inning.
The Cobras struck for a pair of runs in the top of the fifth, but Royal Palm closed the game with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Gibbins ended the game with a two-out RBI single for the final margin
“H a t s o f f t o t h e g i r l s tonight,” Hir said. “They were swinging the bats.”