WINTER PARK, Fla. (February 24, 2023) – Friday night saw two of the perennial contenders in the SSC open their series in Winter Park. In game one of three, the Rollins Tars defeated the Nova Southeastern Sharks by a score of 4-2. Rollins now stands at 5-3 on the year, while Nova Southeastern moves to 3-7.
Nova tried to two-out rally in the top of the first, but Rollins starter left the bases loaded to escape an early jam. In the bottom half, Sharks' starter Carlos Rey made quick work of the Tars first three hitters.
The second inning was lifeless, aside from a spectacular grab in center by
Cameron Meehan to end the top half. The first score of the game came in the top of the third. The Sharks put three men on via two walks and a hit by pitch before Adam Smith singled through the left side to make it a 2-0 game. In the bottom half,
Joey Rubin tripled with two outs and was immediately brought in when
Adams Torres doubled to right-center to cut the lead in half.
Rollins threatened in the fourth when
Ryan Coleman doubled and moved to third on a wild pitch, but Rey was able to strike out the next two batters to escape unscathed.
The Sharks pitcher wasn't as lucky in the bottom of the fifth.
Parker Smith led off with a double to left, and was moved to third on an
Axel Post sac bunt.
Joey Rubin then chopped a grounder to short that was deep enough to plate Smith and tie the game. The next batter was Torres who ripped a laser to center that was misread by the centerfielder, giving him a triple. He would stay stranded however, leaving it a tie game after five.
Nova Southeastern threatened once more in the top of the sixth.
Edward Berry looked to be closing out his evening strong with a pair of strikeouts, but a single and a hit batter, in addition to eclipsing the 100 pitch mark, chased him from the game.
Tate Stone-Frisina entered the game and walked the first batter he saw to load the bases, but then induced a groundout to leave the bases juiced.
After a quiet seventh, Nova looked to strike again with two runners on base in the eighth. However, Stone-Frisina was able to induce a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the inning unhurt.
The drama came in the bottom of the ninth inning as Meehan led off the inning with a sharp single to left-center. A chess game of pickoff throws and shown bunts eventually led to Meehan stealing second. After an out, Meehan was then able to steal third after getting a massive lead off second. That set the stage for
Parker Smith, who battled to a full count and then obliterated a ball over the center field fence for the walk-off home run.
Smith led the offense with a double and a home run, plus two runs and two RBI. Stone-Frisina picked up the win with 3.1 innings of scoreless relief.
The two teams will tango again on Saturday with a 2:00 pm first pitch at Alfond Stadium.
