PENSACOLA, Fla. (February 11, 2012) - After
having the best start to a season in nine years, the Rollins Tars
baseball team dropped two to defending national champions,
fourth-ranked West Florida Saturday afternoon at Jim Spooner
Field.
In game one, the Tars (3-2) drew first blood in the opening
frame scoring a pair of runs on the Argos. With one out and
runners on first and second, Brandon
Curson singled to center driving in Zach
Persky for the first run. On a deep fly ball to right from Sean
Reilly, Kevin
Mager scored the second run of the inning on the sacrifice
fly.
Rollins tacked on another run in the fifth on a RBI single by
Persky to score Nick
Adams to push the score to 3-0.
In his second start of the season, senior right-hander Taylor
Smith had a no-no through three and two-third innings, giving
up a base hit in the fourth and striking out the next batter to get
out of the inning. Smith tossed 6.1 and fanned eight batters for
the second straight outing to receive the no decision. He faced
two batters in the seventh and was relieved by southpaw Jack
Murray.
Murray (1-1) was charged with the loss as he gave up the tying
and winning runs in the seventh and eighth innings, respectively.
In the seventh inning, West Florida got on the board with three
runs on two hits to tie the score. Murray gave up the tying run on
a wild pitch to score Leo Lamarche.
In the eighth inning, Murray picked up two quick outs and walked
the next batter. Rollins then made a call to the bullpen and used
sophomore Adam
Ogburn to close out the inning. A double down the rightfield
line and a 7-4-5 rundown ended the frame for the Tars.
Rollins was unable to put up a run in the ninth leaving one on
base. The Tars outhit their opponent 10-5, but came up short in
the end. Neither team committed an error in the contest.
Zach
Persky shined for the Tars in game one going 3-4 with one run
and an RBI. Nick
Adams notched two hits, to go along with one run.
Dan Husum (1-0) was awarded the win for UWF, while Bobby Parker
(SV, 2) picked up his second save of the season.
Game two started in similar fashion for the Tars as they got on
the board with a pair of runs in the first. Zach
Persky and Nick
Adams scored on a Brandon
Curson single through the right side with one out on the
board.
West Florida (4-1) cut the deficit in half in the second
inning. Billy O'Connor singled to left to start the inning, moved
to second on a base hit, third on a Rollins wild pitch, and finally
scored on another base hit.
Despite the cold temperatures in the panhandle, West Florida got
hot in the fourth inning scoring five runs on three hits. Rollins
starting pitcher Michael Herrmann (0-1) was saddled with the loss
giving up all six Argos runs. He allowed five hits and three walks
while striking out four over 3.1 innings.
The Tars managed to score one more in the fifth, but were kept
scoreless in the final two innings of play. Argos starting pitcher
Josh Tanski got the win in five innings of work, while Bobby Parker
(SV, 3) picked up his second save of the day and third of the
season.
Brandon
Curson got two hits for the Tars, while five Tars registered
one hit off the Argos.
Rollins will wrap-up the weekend series with the fourth-ranked
West Florida Argonauts on Sunday, Feb. 12. First pitch is set for
1 p.m. Fans can catch all the action live on the Tars Sports
Network at RollinsSports.com.
