WINTER PARK, Fla. (March 21, 2021) - Rollins wrapped up their week with a pair of wins on Sunday afternoon at Alfond Stadium, defeating the Lynn Fighting Knights 1-0 in game one and 9-0 in game two.
Game One
Tate Stone-Frisina was called on to make his second start of the young season, and came through with an impressive performance. Things started a little shaky with a pair of base hits in the top of the first, but the junior righty was able to settle in and strikeout James Buckle to strand both runners. Rollins also put a pair on in the first thanks to two walks, but were unable to capitalize. Rollins was able to support their starter in the bottom of the third when
Drew Howard bunted for a base hit and was sacrificed to second by
Kyle Bullock. With two outs,
Luke Reidy came through in a big way, stroking a two-strike fastball into left field to score Howard.
One run was all the Tars needed as all three pitchers they used were locked in. Stone-Frisina wrapped up his day with five innings pitched. He scattered five hits (all singles), walked one, and struck out three.
Steven Swift spotted him in the sixth and tossed three scoreless of his own to go along with three punchouts. With the game on the line, the Tars turned to
Kyle Kramer to shut things down in the ninth. After walking the first batter, Kramer was able to battle through and retire the next three hitters to earn his first save of the year.
Jack Gonzalez reached base safely three times with a double and two walks.
Game Two
It may have been cold outside, but the Tars' bats got hot in game two. After both teams failed to score in the first two innings, Rollins went to work in the third. With one out, Howard once again reached on a bunt single. The next two hitters,
Nick Santucci and
Cameron Meehan, were both hit by pitches to load the bases for Gonzalez. He chopped a grounder up the middle, but was able to beat the throw to first to avoid a double play and also drive in the first run of the game.
Luke Reidy would draw a walk to reload the bases for
Ryan Coleman. The redshirt freshman showed off his power stroke, smashing a grand slam over the right field fence to give the Tars a 5-0 lead.
Rollins padded their lead in the 5th when Gonzalez went yard over the right-center fence for his first dinger of the year. Two more runs came across in the sixth thanks to RBI singles from Santucci and Sam Lafontaine. The Tars added one more in the seventh inning thanks to the hustle of speed merchant
Jake Rolly. With one out, he was hit by a pitch, and promptly moved to second base on a wild pitch. After moving to third on a
Tyler Colson single to left, Rolly would come around to score on a sac fly from
Joe Cosgrove to make the final score of 9-0.
Rollins starter
Jaylyn Whitehead was phenomenal in his second start of the year. The UCF transfer faced the minimum 18 batters in his six innings of work. He allowed one hit, a single in the second inning; however, he was able to induce a 4-6-3 double play on the next batter to keep things in order. In fact, he retired the final fourteen hitters he faced in order, including three straight strikeouts in his final frame of work. The southpaw totaled seven strikeouts on the day. Michae Cullen worked a scoreless seventh inning to maintain the shutout.
With the pair of wins, Rollins moves to 4-2 on the year, with a 3-1 mark in SSC play. Lynn drops to 2-5 on the season. Next up for the Tars will be a three-game set against Florida Southern. Rollins will travel to Lakeland on Friday March 26 and Sunday March 28 while hosting the Mocs on Saturday March 27.
For the latest news, updates, and information on the Rollins baseball, fans can visit RollinsSports.com. Fans can also stay up-to-date on the latest #TARnation news by following Rollins Sports on
Facebook,
Twitter, and
Instagram
