Strong pitching lifts Park Vista over Jupiter

LAKE WORTH — Matt Paulo pitched only 21⁄3 innings for the Park Vista baseball team last year, but he has turned into the Cobras’ ace this season.

The senior right-hander had one of his best performances in Park Vista’s biggest game so far this year, pitching 61⁄3 innings of one-run ball to lead the Cobras to a 4-1 win over Jupiter in the Class 9A regional quarterfinals in Lake Worth on Thursday night.

“He was outstanding,” Park Vista coach Larry Greenstein said. “He was pumped up, but with that, he was able to control himself and just do what he had to do.”

Paulo came out of the gate strong, retiring the first nine Jupiter batters he faced. While Paulo was dominating, the opposing pitcher, Jupiter’s Jake Garland, ran into trouble.

Garland, a senior Miami signee, has been one of Palm Beach County’s most dominant pitchers this season, but he struggled with his command early. He walked Park Vista leadoff hitter Adrian Ojea, and No. 2 hitter Dylan Michaud reached on an error. Two wild pitches later, the Cobras had a 1-0 lead.

Park Vista broke the game open further in the third inning. Junior outfielder Nolan Schanuel led off the inning with a single, and Paulo tried to bunt him over to second base. Paulo dove head first into the bag to try to beat the throw, and the ball fell to the ground.

Garland saw Schanuel in between third and home and threw home to catch the outfielder in a rundown. But the throw to third from the catcher sailed down the left-field line and into the outfield, and both Park Vista runners scored.

The Cobras added one more in the inning on a single by senior Eros Nunez to take a 4-0 lead.

Paulo, who Greenstein said scraped his knees badly on the dive into first, scuffled a bit in the fourth and gave up his only run of the night on a single by Connor Roth. But the senior buckled down and pitched 21⁄3 more innings, finishing the game with seven strikeouts.

“He did a great job tonight,” Greenstein said. “I’m really proud of him.”

Park Vista will play Palm Beach Central, which beat Santaluces in the quarterfinals, in the regional semifinals on Saturday at 7 p.m.

“There’s no easy teams here,” Greenstein said. “They’re all going to be good.”