Tars Take Game Two from Panthers
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| Reid Neal went 3-for-5 in Thursday's loss - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography |
The Rollins College Tars found their groove in the middle
innings on Thursday and went to beat Florida Tech 8-2, in game two of their
Sunshine State Conference series at Andy Seminick-Les Hall Field.
Things got off to a good start for the Panthers as they got
to Rollins starter AJ Chacon for two runs in the bottom of the second. It could
have been more. David Wilson hit a
long fly ball with one out in the inning, that was tracked by left fielder Mike
Dolan, who leaped and made a great catch, taking a potential home run away.
Chacon ran into more trouble immediately, walking Ryan Sinzenich and Vinny Catanza. Trent Masih
then hit a ball to Isaiah Russell at shortstop. He was there to field it, but
it went off his glove and the bases were loaded. Chacon then walked Grant McKown, scoring Sinzenich with
the first run. Reid Neal grounded
out, ending the inning and the Panthers left the bases loaded.
Florida Tech (26-17, 10-7 SSC) got another run in the bottom
of the third, getting to Chacon early.
John
Sternagel reached on an errant throw by Russell, that ended up in the
Panthers dugout, allowing Sternagel to trot to second. Dan Szpik grounded out, moving Sternagel another 90 feet and Nick Capra followed with an RBI single.
A Sinzenich single and a walk to Catanza, loaded the bases for the second straight
inning, but Chacon got Masih to ground out, ending the inning with the Panthers
up 2-0.
The fact that the Panthers couldn’t make more of their early
chances, was not lost on Panthers coach Greg Berkemeier.
“We didn’t do a good enough job of capitalizing on opportunities early in the
game,” he said. “We left a lot of guys out there in the first four innings.”
Rollins (25-18, 9-11 SSC) finally got to Florida Tech
starter Ty Cohen in the top of the
fourth. Peter Nicoletto doubled on a ball that barely got out of the infield,
but was aided by a bad hop. He was chased home by a triple off the bat of Chris
Corbett. Mike Purcell and Grant Ashline both had RBI singles later in the
inning, giving the Tars a 3-2 lead.
Nicoletto would add an RBI single in the fifth, to extend
the lead to 4-2. Corbett’s RBI ground out made it 5-2.
In the bottom of the fifth Caleb Jakes took over for Chacon,
who went four innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits. Jakes was
dealing from the get-go, striking out seven of the first 10 Panthers he faced.
“We didn’t do a good job of attacking him at all,” said Berkemeier
of Jakes. “We basically let him take it to us and at that point in time, they’ve
already got a lead and at that point in time, it was gonna be tough for us to
come back.”
Jakes allowed just two hits in his five innings of work, striking
out eight of the 18 batters he faced. On the other side, Cohen (6-3) was done
after six innings, giving of five runs (four earned) on seven hits. He walked
one and struck out two.
“He didn’t throw the ball the way that he’s capable of,” Berkemeier said of Cohen. “He struggled with being
able to use all of his pitches. All he really had was the fastball early in the
game and it took him a little while to get a feel for his off-speed pitches and
by that time they had already grabbed the lead.”
Jake Lane came in
to relieve Cohen and was helped in the seventh on a ball hit to short by
Russell that turned into a double play, thanks to a hard slide by Sam
LaFontaine resulting in an interference call. Russell was called out at first
on the play.
The Tars got their final three runs in the eighth, on a home
run to left by Nick Breen. Lane walked the next batter and he was yanked in
favor of Rhett Willis, who had to
come in and get all three outs in the frame.
For more info: Rollins
@ Florida Tech Box Score
The series wraps up on Friday, with an 11:00 a.m. first pitch. The Panthers will say goodbye to 13 seniors prior to the game.
“That’s a lot of guys who have been here for a long time and
have made some major contributions to our program,” Berkemeier said. “It’s
always an emotional day when it’s the last time they’re playing at home, but
hopefully we’re able to control the emotions and find a way to win.”
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