Neal’s Big Day Drives FIT to Victory in Game One


The Florida Tech baseball team took game one of a doubleheader on Saturday, beating Lincoln Memorial 6-4 behind the three hit, three RBI day of Reid Neal.

Neal tied the game in the third with a 2-run single and gave the Panthers the lead in the fifth, with an RBI single. That gave the Panthers a lead they would never relinquish.

Panthers starting pitcher Tyler Deel got off to a bit of a shaky start, giving up two runs in the top of the first, but he rebounded nicely to pick up his second win of the season.

After dropping game one of the series on Friday 7-2, the Railsplitters were looking to get things started on the right foot Saturday and they did that, scoring twice in the top of the first. Nate Stinson led off with a single and after Tyler Adams walked, both runners moved up on a passed ball. Logan Augustine’s sac fly brought one home and Mason Ewers double, made it 2-0. Deel got the next two outs, avoiding further trouble.

LMU starter Brandon Jean pitched well through the first two innings, but ran inti trouble in the third. Kevin Capella singled with one out and moved to second on a single by Pedro Rivera. They would later score on a Neal single back up the middle, tying the game at two.

Neal was back at it in the fifth. After John Sternagel doubled with one out, Neal drove him in with a single, giving the Panthers a 3-2 lead. Neal would then steal second and go to third on a single by Grant McKown. After McKown stole second, Dan Szpik would ground out to second, allowing Neal to score.

Up 4-2, Deel did not return for the sixth inning. He gave way to Rhett Willis, to start the inning. Deel went 5 innings, allowing two runs on two hits. He walked two and struck out five.

LMU (1-5) got to Willis in that sixth frame, as Ewers drew a one out walk. He would move to second on a single by Russell Clark and both men would move up on a throwing error. Turner Whitfield’s RBI ground out would close the gap to 4-3.

The Panthers (5-1) would get the insurance they needed in the bottom of the seventh. Sternagel walked and went to second on a single by Neal. A wild pitch by reliever Dominic Morabito, who had just come into the game, moved the runners up. McKown chased them home with a two-run single, staking the Panthers to a 6-3 lead.

Augustine homered to start the eighth for Lincoln Memorial, to cut the deficit to 6-4, but Willis would get through the rest of the inning. Luke Lorah came in to start the ninth for the Panthers and he struck out the only batter he faced. Drew Beyer got the final two outs of the game.

For more info: Lincoln Memorial @ Florida Tech Box Score

Florida Tech pounded out 13 hits in this contest, while the Railsplitters managed six. Game two of the doubleheader will be in a separate article.



This blog is an extension of our website - Sportslowdown.com Follow us on Twitter @sports_lowdown

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Panthers Bounce Back with Big Win Over Nova Southeastern

Image
Shequana Harris -  Photo credit:  James Ragan Photography After a difficult loss, Wednesday night against Rollins, the Florida Tech women bounced back to beat the Nova Southeastern Sharks 57-46 on Saturday, led by Shequana Harris , who had a game high 16 points. Markeema Crawford chipped in 11. The Sharks came in ranked 22 nd nationally and had won five in a row. They fell to 6-2 overall and the Panthers handed them their first loss in the Sunshine State Conference. “We outrebounded them by 10 37-27 and that was the game,” said Florida Tech head coach John Reynolds in his postgame interview with Jim Mitchell. “Julie McCarthy had 10 and played a great game today.” Things got off to a bit of a slow start for the Panthers, who were outscored 17-10 in the first quarter, including a 10-2 Nova run to end the quarter. The slow start could have been due in large part to the absence of Tanease Richardson who was injured against Rollins and Michaela Gelbaugh , who h
Read more

Panthers Take Game One from Choctaws

Image
The Florida Tech Panthers won their opening baseball game of the season on Friday, 6-4 over the Mississippi College Choctaws, 6-4. It did not come easy, as Florida Tech had to score four runs in their last at bat, to erase a two-run deficit. The Panthers (1-0) had eight hits on the day, with John Sternagel , Grant McKown and Ryan Sinzenich doing the bulk of the damage, with two each. Sinzenich led the Panthers with three RBIs. The seven-inning game was scoreless for the first three innings, before Sternagel took Tommy Taborda deep over the left-center field wall on an 0-1 count, to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead. FIT added a run in the sixth with McKown doubling down the left field line with one out. Two batters later, Sinzenich brought him home with a single, giving the Panthers a 2-0 lead. Panthers starting pitcher Ty Cohen was pitching well through the first five frames, but the Choctaws finally got to him in the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Cohen gave up ba
Read more

Spartans Spoil Senior Night

Image
Karlyn Prisco - Photo credit: James Ragan Miranda Gonzalez scored the only goal of the night in the 39th minute on Saturday, giving her Tampa Spartans a 1-0 win over Florida Tech in a Sunshine State women's soccer matchup.   Brie Heitz , Kerel Morris , Karlyn Prisco , Elin Svensson , Mary Watson and  Aubri Williamson were all honored in a pregame ceremony. They will have one more regular season home game before saying goodbye to the Florida Tech fans for good.   Prisco gave up the first half goal, but she kept her team in it, making a couple key saves before that, including a diving save on an Emily Cady shot in the 24th minute and a follow-up save on Gonzalez, six seconds later. She finished the night with six saves overall. She now has 68 saves, good for third place in the Sunshine State Conference.   The Panthers best chance of the half came at the 27:54 mark when Monica Zabian took free-kick and launched it over the Tampa wall, but Spartans goali
Read more