ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (March 17, 2006)
The Rollins baseball team kept up its winning ways Friday as the
Tars won their fifth straight game with a victory over the Eckerd
Tritons, 11-7. The Tars (15-9) got their first victory of the year
against a Sunshine State Conference opponent. The Tritons out-hit
the Tars 12-8, but Rollins was able to take advantage of six Triton
errors and got some big offensive performances from their clutch
hitters.
Junior third baseman Gene Howard had a career day at the plate.
Howard went 4-5 with 5 RBI and two runs scored. He hit his second
home run of the season in the first and drove his RBI total up 22
on the season. Sophomore second baseman Gary Martoccio was 1-2 with
three walks, a RBI and three runs scored out of the lead-off spot.
Freshman Tyler Hartman went 2-4 with two RBI and three runs
scored.
David Nathanson started off the game unhittable. However, after
four scoreless innings, the Tritons were able to get to him and
prove Nathanson mortal. The junior ace of the staff ended up going
6.1 innings giving up five runs on eight hits while striking out
three and walking none en route to his third victory on the
year.
The Tars kicked off the scoring in the top of the first. Each of
the first three runners got on base as Martoccio drew a walk,
Hartman was hit by a pitch and Howard hit his second home run of
the season to right field to put Rollins up 3-0. The Tars added two
more in the top of the second on a RBI double by Hartman and a RBI
single by Howard to make it 5-0. Rollins added some more padding in
the fourth inning. Jason Cutlip reached on an error by the
centerfielder and was brought home on a RBI single by Gary
Martoccio which put the Tars up 6-0.
David Nathanson was on a roll early on against the Tritons.
Nathanson allowed only one
base runner through the first four innings. The Tritons finally
broke through in the bottom of the fifth when they started the
inning out with three straight hits. Eckerd plated three in the
fifth on a RBI double and two RBI groundouts. Eckerd led the bottom
of the sixth off with two straight hits including a RBI single to
make it a 6-4 game.
Eckerd could have done more damage as with two outs and a man on
third Mickey Pinrose hit a rocket to third but Gene Howard
back-handed the drive off of the hop and fired it across the
diamond to Stefano Foggi who scooped it up to end the inning. The
Tars got a run back in the top of the seventh with a RBI single by
Gene Howard to put them up 7-4. In the bottom of the seventh Eckerd
battled back for a run on three hits chasing out David Nathanson
and making it a 7-5 ball game. Rollins then broke the game open in
the top of the ninth with four unearned runs on three Eckerd
errors. The Tritons got two runs in the bottom of the ninth but it
was too late, as the Tars took the game 11-7.
The Tars will be back in action Saturday for a double-header with
Eckerd. First pitch is scheduled for 1 pm.
