WINTER PARK , Fla. (April 13, 2006) The Rollins baseball team
showed its guts and perseverance on Thursday night, but still fell
to the defending national champs, Florida Southern, in ten innings,
14-9. The Tars (22-18, 5-11) battled back from a 9-5 deficit to tie
the game at nine in the bottom of the eighth inning. However, the
Tars couldn't finish off the Mocs and the Florida Southern bats got
hot in the clutch, posting five runs in the tenth to win it.
'
Rollins was led offensively by sophomore first baseman Stefano
Foggi who went 2-2 with a triple, two runs scored, three walks, and
two runs batted in. Junior third baseman Gene Howard was 3-6 with a
RBI. Gary Martoccio, Eugene Martinez and Jesse More also added a
RBI apiece. Senior outfielder Brent Magnuson went 1-5 with walk and
two runs scored. And junior shortstop Ryan McKenzie went 1-4 with a
walk and a run scored.
'
Junior starting pitcher David Nathanson had a rough night on the
mound. Nathanson went 6.1 innings throwing well over 110 pitches,
while giving up seven runs, only three of which were earned, on
nine hits. Senior Rob Cloar worked a perfect ninth inning but ran
into a lot of trouble in the tenth. Cloar walked three batters in
the tenth inning and relinquished five earned runs on three hits,
for his second loss on the season.
'
Both
defenses were sloppy all night. The two teams combined for eight
errors, with each team contributing four. Florida Southern nearly
cost itself the ball game when the second baseman let a ball go
through his legs in the bottom of the eighth which led to a four
run Tar rally to send it to extras.
'
Florida Southern kicked off the scoring in the second inning with a
run. They would add two more runs in the fifth inning on a RBI
double by Mike Grace and a RBI sac fly by Kyle Patrick. Rollins was
able to respond in the bottom half of the fifth with two runs of
their own. Foggi began the rally with a one out double. More
followed with a RBI single up the middle scoring Foggi. Martoccio
followed two batters later with a RBI single which plated More to
make the game 3-2.
'
Florida Southern added an earned run in the top half of the sixth
to extend their lead. But Rollins answered with three in the bottom
half. Magnuson started with a one out double. He later scored on a
fielding error by the third baseman. Stefano Foggi delivered a
clutch triple, knocking in two runs to give the Tars their only
lead of the game at 5-4. The Tars missed out on an opportunity to
push the lead even more. Foggi was on third with one out when the
Tars tried an unsuccessful suicide squeeze which killed the
rally.
'
Florida Southern answered in the top of the seventh with five runs
to take back the lead at 9-5. But the Tars wouldn't die. They came
back to tie the game at nine in the bottom of the eighth inning
with four runs. Magnuson led off with a walk. McKenzie followed a
batter later with a one out walk. The Mocs then went to their ace
reliever, Kyle DeYoung for the rest of the way. DeYoung proceeded
to walk Foggi on a 3-1 count. DeYoung then walked Eugene Martinez
to plate the Tars first run of the inning. Martoccio then hit a
routine bouncer that went through the legs of the second baseman,
scoring two unearned runs. Howard followed with a RBI single to
center scoring Kevin Small for the tying run.
'
The
Tars had a chance to win it in the ninth. Rollins put runners on
first and second with two outs but couldn't convert. Florida
Southern came back in the tenth and took advantage of three walks
in the first four batters. Adam Calderone delivered the nail in the
coffin with a two RBI double down the left field line. By the time
the inning was over the Mocs had posted five runs. They would go on
to win 14-9.
'
The
Tars and Mocs will resume their three game set on Friday April 14.
The first pitch of the double header is scheduled for 1 pm in
Alfond Stadium.
