Moore Haven senior baseball player Garrett Palladino is this week’s Big Lake Athlete of the Week for his performance on the Terriers varsity baseball team.

Palladino leads the Terriers in batting average with .415 and also leads the team in hits with 17 so far in the 2019 season.

He leads the team in stolen bases as well with nine.

Moore Haven is sitting at a 10-7 record with two games left in their regular season. Last year the Terriers found themselves bounced out of the first round of the district tournament with a 12-1 loss to the Community School of Naples Seahawks.

Including the regular-season sweep, the Seahawks were able to beat the Terriers three times in 2018.

But Moore Haven turned the tables on the Seahawks during their latest game on April 11.

The Terriers roared out to a 4-1 lead after the first inning and didn’t take their foot off the gas until after the third inning.

At the bottom of the third inning the Seahawks found themselves down 14-3 to Moore Haven. The Terriers ultimately came away with a 14-6 win.

Terrier coach Vernon Holland is confident his team can stand toe-to-toe with anyone.

“I’m confident in my guys; they show up every day ready to put in the work,” expressed Holland. “We are focused on taking care of one thing at a time. If my guys show up and play the game like it’s supposed to be played, I’m confident in beating any team on our schedule.”

The next team on the Terriers schedule are the 6-11 Clewiston Tigers, and Moore Haven already gave Clewiston one of those 11 losses back on April 23.

After allowing the Tigers to put one run on the board in the second inning, Moore Haven responded with seven unanswered runs of their own in the second half of the game to win 7-1. Palladino added one of his team-leading nine stolen bases in that game as well.

Moore Haven will attempt to complete the sweep when they travel to Clewiston and face the Tigers at 7 p.m. on May 1.

If you’d like to nominate a student or athlete for Big Lake Athlete of the Week, email the name of your nominee along with what sport they play to Lake Okeechobee News sports reporter Richard Marion at rmarion@newszap.com.