LAKELAND , Fla. (May 10, 2006) The Tars seemed to have fate working
against them on Florida Southern's senior night in Lakeland .
Senior Paul Ryan's walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the
ninth inning gave the Moccasins a 4-3 victory. The Tars (27-26)
gave the Mocs (38-17) a battle, but in the end the defending
National Champs were able to get the big hit in the clutch and the
Tars weren't. Senior Rob Cloar pitched brilliantly for the Tars in
the no decision. Unfortunately for the Tars, the bullpen couldn't
hold a 3-1 lead in the final three innings as they gave up runs in
the seventh, eighth and ninth en route to the loss.
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Freshman outfielder Anthony Soto led the Tars offense, going 3-4
with a double. Stefano Foggi, Ryan McKenzie and Eugene Martinez all
added RBI for the Tars. Gary Martoccio, Brent Magnuson, Gene Howard
and Jesse More all had hits for Rollins as well.
'
Wednesday night's pitching match-up featured a pair of spot
starting relievers in Kyle DeYoung and Rob Cloar, both starting
their second games of the season. Cloar gave the Tars a big boost
throwing 107 pitches over six innings. The senior bent but would
not break against the Moc lineup. He thwarted several scoring
opportunities as the Mocs left 10 men on base in the first six
innings, leaving the bases loaded in the third and fourth. Cloar
walked three and gave up seven hits but allowed only one run while
striking out a season high seven batters, but still got the
no-decision.
'
The
Tars were the first to get on the board in the fourth inning. Gary
Martoccio led off the inning with a drag bunt that just trickled
past the pitcher. Gene Howard followed a batter later with a double
down the right field line to put runners on second and third.
Martoccio scored after the second baseman booted a tough hopper off
of Stefano Foggi's bat. Howard scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan
McKenzie. Upon completing the inning, DeYoung's night was
through.
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Cloar ran into trouble in the bottom of the fourth. The Mocs led
off the inning with a stand up triple by Adam Calderone. Bryan
Brown followed with a RBI single on the next pitch. Cloar then
walked a batter and allowed an infield single to load the bases.
But he was able to limit the damage and get out of the jam with a
three pitch strike-out of Brian Schultz.
'
The
Tars got that run back in the top of the fifth against the Mocs
relief unit. Jesse More began the inning with a double to right
field and would later score on a single by Eugene Martinez. Rollins
loaded the bases two batters later when Martoccio was hit by a
pitch and Magnuson followed with a single up the middle. But the
Tars weren't able to do any further damage as Joe Walczak got Gene
Howard to ground into a 53 double play to end the inning.
'
The
Mocs got a run in the seventh to cut the lead to 3-2. Then in the
eighth, Florida Southern was able to tie it up with a lead off
triple followed by a single. Later in the same inning, the Mocs
loaded the bases on two walks forcing the Tars to call Gene Howard
in to pitch from third base. Howard got the job done as he forced
Adam Calderone to pop up to Martoccio at second, marking the third
time in the game that the Mocs left the bases loaded.
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The
Tars had a good chance to take the lead in a critical situation.
Anthony Soto led off the inning with a double to deep center, but
the Tars couldn't get him in. Then in the bottom of the ninth, the
Mocs ended it with a Paul Ryan solo home run that just made it over
the left field wall.
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The Tars will be back in
action on Friday, May 12 when they travel to Ft. Myers for a two
game weekend series against the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles. First
pitch on Friday is scheduled for 7 pm.
