FORT
MYERS, Fla. (May 12, 2006) The Rollins baseball team played spoiler
on Friday night knocking off Florida Gulf Coast 8-7. The Tars
(28-26) assured themselves of a season over .500 and hurt the
Eagles (38-15) chances of reaching the South Regional. The Tars
used a six run sixth inning and a gritty outing by senior Eduardo
Chile to squeak out an 8-7 victory.'
Chile pitched very well in what was his final collegiate start. The
six foot senior pitched six solid innings giving up three earned
runs on five hits while striking out four. He finishes his career
at Rollins with 26 wins, 237 strike-outs in 310.1 innings pitched
with nine complete games and four shutouts. He is tenth on the
Rollins career wins list and thirteenth in career strikeouts.'
Freshman catcher Eugene Martinez led the Tars offense going 2-5
with two RBI and a run scored. Jesse More went 3-5 with a RBI and a
run scored. Ryan McKenzie and Anthony Soto also added two hits and
a RBI. Gary Martoccio, Tyler Hartman, Gene Howard, Stefano Foggi
and Steve Mannenbach all added hits in the Tars' win.'
The Tars struck first for the second straight game Friday night.
Ryan McKenzie led off the second with a single and would come
around to score on a RBI infield single by Jesse More. The Eagles
struck back in the bottom of the fourth with an unearned run on a
pass ball that trickled away from catcher Eugene Martinez.'
The Tars got another rally started in the top of the fifth inning.
Eugene Maratinez started it up with a one out single. Following a
controversial bang-bang out at first base, the Eagles starter
Justin Stiver began to lose his control. He walked Magnuson and
Howard on eight straight pitches to load the bases up for Stefano
Foggi. However, Stiver was able to regain his composure and put
Foggi away with a long fly out to center.'
Rollins was able to break through with a crooked number in the
sixth. The Eagles shot themselves in the foot as shortstop Patrick
Garrido picked up his third error of the game on a ground ball off
the bat of Steve Mannenbach. Anthony Soto followed with a single
through the right side and Jesse More then laid down a perfect bunt
down the third baseline for a single to load the bases for Eugene
Martinez. Martinez delivered a two RBI single that just got out of
reach of the shortstop to put the Tars up 3-1. Tyler Hartman then
followed with another two RBI single to make it 5-1. The Tars kept
the inning going with another RBI single this time by Stefano Foggi
to make it 6-1. But the Tars were still not done, they added yet
another run on another RBI single by Ryan McKenzie, putting the
Tars up 7-1.'
In total, the Tars put up six runs on six hits and sent 10 men to
the plate.'
The Eagles tried to creep back in during the bottom of the sixth.
Chile got a little wild walking the first two men of the inning on
eight pitches. The Tars took advantage of a poor base running
decision and turned two on a hard hit ball to left field. But the
Eagles still pushed three runs in on a RBI single and a two-run
homer by Geoff Rottmayer to bring the score to 7-4.'
The Tars added to their lead in the top of the seventh. Steve
Mannenbach led off the inning with a triple to deep center field.
He scored a few pitches later on a RBI single by Anthony Soto to
increase the Tars lead to 8-4.'
But the bullpen was shaky for the second straight game for the
Tars. Mario Lombardo gave up a three run home run to Shawn Griffin
to cut the Tars' lead to 8-7. Then in the ninth, Michael Eppich
came in and walked the first man he faced. The next hitter
sacrificed the runner over to second and the following hitter flied
out to left. Then on the final play of the game Mike Cleghorn lined
one off of Eppich's leg and Eppich raced to the bag and tagged the
batter out to end it.'
Rollins will play its last game of the season on Saturday as they
will battle the Eagles once more in Fort Myers. First pitch is
scheduled for 1 pm.'
