Class Low-A Palm Beach bookended a season that included a franchise-best 83-47 record with a Florida State League championship-clinching win over Lakeland on Wednesday. To do so, it took waiting through a two-hour and 34-minute rain delay and a pair of clutch hits from two members of the Cardinals’ 2024 MLB draft class.
Tied at three runs apiece vs. Lakeland entering the seventh inning at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida, the Cardinals’ Class Low-A affiliate received a go-ahead RBI double from Bryce Madron that plated Ryan Campos and advanced Jon Jon Gazdar to third base. In the at-bat that followed, JJ Wetherholt, the Cardinals’ top pick in this year’s draft, belted a fly ball to center field that led to a triple and scored Gazdar and Mardon to further Palm Beach’s lead in the 6-4 win over the Detroit Tigers’ Class Low-A affiliate.
While Palm Beach hitters pushed across six runs, its pitching staff combined to hold Lakeland to three runs across eight innings of relief after starter Chen-Wei Lin’s outing was cut short because of the rain delay.
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The win gives Palm Beach its third overall Florida State League title and second individual claim to the FSL championship. Palm Beach was named co-champions in 2017 alongside Dunedin, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Class Low-A affiliate, after Hurricane Irma canceled that year’s championship series.
Nolan Sparks, who entered in relief at the start of the sixth inning, allowed one run and struck out five batters across 2 2/3 innings as the game’s winning pitcher. The lone run allowed by Sparks came in the form of a leadoff home run to Jack Penney at the start of the eighth inning. Sparks — the Cardinals’ 13th-round pick in the year’s draft — struck out the next two batters before allowing a single to Garrett Pennington.
Following the two-out single from Pennington, Sparks was replaced by Luis Gastelum, who struck out Franyerber Montilla, looking, to end the eighth. Gastelum returned for the ninth inning and retired the Lakeland side in order.
Gastelum, a 22-year-old eighty from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, punctuated Palm Beach’s season with a called strike three on a changeup that froze David Smith and sent the PB-Cards into a celebration.
“We knew kind of in that rain delay that they were going to try to get the game in and we knew Chen-Wei wasn't going to be out there to throw,” Sparks said late Wednesday night during a phone interview. “But we knew all he needed to do was kind of start us off. Going into the game, if anyone got into trouble, we had a very good and deep bullpen where we had plenty of guys to go to. It was just kind of a plan coming to fruition and working out.”
Lin, who went 10-5 with a 2.79 ERA, 123 strikeouts in 116 innings, and was named an FSL Post-Season All-Star, pitched one scoreless inning before wet conditions caused a two-hour and 34-minute delay.
Once the weather cleared and conditions were set to resume play in the bottom of the first inning, a two-out double from Ian Petrutz scored Josh Kross and Madron, the latter of whom singled before the delay began.
Leonel Sequera came in to relieve Lin to begin the second inning and pitched two scoreless innings as Palm Beach furthered its lead to 3-0 when Madron grounded into a forceout in the second inning. Sequera allowed a run in the fourth inning on a single from Montilla that signaled the end of Sequera’s outing as Juan Salas entered and kept Montilla stranded on first by getting Archer Brookman to fly out.
Lakeland tied Wednesday’s game in the fifth inning when Penney belted a two-run homer off of Salas, who started 22 regular-season games for Palm Beach and entered Game 3 on three days of rest after starting Game 1.
Palm Beach hitters went down in order in the fifth and sixth innings before Campos reached on an error to begin the seventh. Gazdar followed behind Campos by drawing a walk to put the go-ahead run in scoring position and set the stage for Madron and Wetherholt to provide the finishing touches on Palm Beach’s strong season.
“It's a fantastic feeling just knowing that everyone that you're playing with is competing for the same dream, competing to eventually play in the big leagues,” Sparks said. “Everyone is fighting to win (and) fighting to do their best, so it's all that hard work paying off and really showing out on the field.
“It was great to do it with each other. We were a very close-knit team. We always stuck with each other. It was definitely a “we” team versus a “me” team. I loved that about it, and it was awesome rallying with each other, getting everybody fired up, and just a lot of hard work paying off.”