Baseball Recap: Palisades Victorious

The Palisades Pumas beat the Butler Bulldogs 15-11 on Thursday. The victory made it back-to-back wins for the Pumas.

Micah VanFossen was a major factor no matter where he played. He struck out seven batters over three innings while giving up no earned runs off five hits (and only one walk). He has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run in six consecutive appearances. He was also solid in the batter's box, scoring two runs while getting on base in two of his five plate appearances. He has become a key player for Palisades: the team is 4-1 when he posts at least two runs, but 2-6 otherwise.

Israel Clase

Runs

03/25/25 vs Olympic	3
03/27/25 vs Butler	2
03/18/25 vs South Mecklenburg	2
03/14/25 vs Myers Park	1
02/24/25 vs Mallard Creek	1

In other batting news, Gabe Diaz and Israel Clase did most of the damage at the plate: Diaz went 1-for-3 with one home run, one stolen base, and two RBI, while Clase scored two runs while going 2-for-3. Palisades is 2-1 when Clase posts two or more runs, but 4-6 otherwise. The team also got some help courtesy of Luis Requena, who scored three runs and stole a base while getting on base in two of his four plate appearances.

Palisades' record now sits at 6-7. As for Butler, they have been struggling recently as they've lost six of their last seven contests. That's put a noticeable dent in their 5-8 record this season.

Palisades will challenge Olympic at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Palisades is facing Olympic at the right time seeing as Olympic is stuck on a seven-game losing streak. As for Butler, they will look to defend their home field on Friday against Rocky River at 6:00 p.m. Rocky River has struggled to contain batters this season (they've allowed 19.67 runs per game on average), something Butler will no doubt try to take advantage of.