WINTER PARK, Fla. (May 2, 2025) – The Rollins College Tars returned to home sweet home on Friday afternoon following a trip out west for the final home series of the year. Looking to capture some momentum for the final two weeks of the season, the visiting Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish stood in their way. After falling behind early, the Tars bats proved too strong and led by four RBI apiece from
Mason Wilson and
Corey Zientek, Rollins ran away with a 15-7 win. The dominant victory improves Rollins' record to 28-16 and 17-8 in conference.
Edward Berry took the bump for his eighth start of the year and fell behind early thanks to a string of hits by PBA. The Sailfish took a 2-0 lead in the first, but Berry worked around an error in the second to settle in.
Mason Wilson picked up his battery mate in the bottom half, smashing the first pitch he saw to trim the Sailfish advantage in half. Moments prior, Rollins Director of Athletic Communications
Phil Chinnery perfectly predicted the mammoth blast to left. A web gem at third ending the inning, but not before Jimmy Theis continued his hot streak to tie the game. The junior has been mashing all year and a two-out single up the middle scored the speedy
Corey Zientek, who had moved into scoring position after a savvy steal.
The top of the third spelled trouble for the Tars. Two walks followed by an RBI single and another free pass issued by Berry ended the senior's outing. A.J. Seymour came in for relief, but the Sailfish kept rolling. A bases loaded walk tacked on another run for PBA, and a base knock scored one more to increase the Sailfish lead to 5-2. Seymour rolled two, mitigating the damage to end the frame, but the Tars found themselves in a hole again.
Rollins had a response though. The Tars began the bottom half of the stanza with four straight men reaching. Wilson provided the exclamation point with a two-run double to trim the lead to 5-4. Later in the inning, Zientek tied it with a productive groundout to the left side.
Seymour picked up where he left off with a quick 1-2-3 frame and
Chris Sparber, in his first game back from injury, smelled blood in the water. Facing a 1-2 count, Sparber hammered a homer to left center to put the Tars ahead for the first time all day. The solo shot was just setting the table for things to come for the top of the Rollins order. A walk was issued to
Michael Furry while
Joey Rubin reached on an error to set up a
Jeslyn Whitehead RBI single. One batter later, Wilson climbed aboard off another PBA error which scored another run. Two RBI groundouts by
Rob Buckley and Zientek extended the lead, as the Tars doubled up the Sailfish 10-5. The inning finally ended, but not before the Tars had batted around and thrown up a crooked number for the third straight time.
PBA responded, ripping three straight singles to load the bases to open the fifth. Seymour kept the damage in check, once again producing a double play which stunted the potential of a big inning. The 6-4-3 twin killing did score a run, though, and the Sailfish tacked on another with an RBI single from the next batter.
But just as they had done all day, the Tars responded. Leadoff hitting Furry was aided by poor fielding by the Sailfish, reaching on an error, but worked his way to third off of two stolen bases. Whitehead traded places with him with an RBI triple down the line and Wilson grabbed his fourth RBI of the day with an infield knock. The Tars weren't done yet. With two away, Zientek joined Wilson with the fourth RBI of his own, hammering a two-run blast in the identical spot of Sparber's home run in the previous inning. The homer capped off a four-run inning as Rollins once again doubled up PBA, 14-7.
The teams traded scoreless frames in the sixth and Seymour working a clean seventh as well with the help of a diving web gem by Zientek in left.
Dalton Pyzer poured in another with a two-out RBI single and followed it up with his first stolen base in a Tars uniform.
Seymour threw up another goose egg in the eighth to hold things pat at 15-7, and PBA did the same in the bottom half.
Senior
Bennett Durkin took over for the ninth to put a bow on a brilliant performance in relief by
AJ Seymour. The outing lasted 5.2 innings and clinched Seymour's first win of the season as he allowed just two earned in the span. Durkin worked two quick outs and gave way to fellow senior
Austin Biddle. Biddle was able to get the final out, sealing a 15-7 win for the Tars.
Tomorrow's Senior Day festivities will begin at approximately 11:30 am with the first pitch of the doubleheader to follow around noon. Be sure to come out to beautiful Alfond Stadium as we pay tribute to eighteen phenomenal seniors and cap off the home slate.
