WINTER PARK, Fla. (May 3, 2025) – The Alfond Stadium grandstand was full as fans came out in droves to watch Rollins College baseball for the final day of the home slate in the regular season. The Tars welcomed the visiting Palm Beach Atlantic Sailfish for a doubleheader, looking to build off a series opening win to send the seniors out in style. A dominant 9-1 victory in game one set up the opportunity for a sweep, but a Tars rally fell short as they dropped game two, 7-5.
Game One
Senior
Nick Berger returned to the bump for game one. Berger has been dominant at home, allowing just one earned run in his past fourteen innings in Winter Park. Saturday was no different. The senior sat down the first eight hitters he faced and was scoreless through three, setting the table for Rollins to pounce in the bottom of the third.
After the first three Tars of the inning reached, Rollins got on the board with an RBI from
Joey Rubin. Two batters later,
Mason Wilson extended the inning and the lead, with the help of a Sailfish error. When
Chris Sparber stepped up to the dish, there were still two ducks on the pond, and the senior had no intentions of leaving them stranded. Sparber ripped his second homerun in consecutive days, putting Rollins ahead 5-0.
In the fourth, Berger worked around two base runners to keep the Sailfish scoreless, and the Tars tacked on another run in the bottom half in the form of a bases loaded free pass issued to senior
Jeslyn Whitehead.
Berger continued to dice up PBA in the fifth and sixth, but Rollins could not extend the lead beyond 6-0.
Then in the seventh, after Berger threw up another goose egg, Wilson tacked on the extra point. The senior homered to right center, giving him fourteen on the season as he joined Sparber in the dinger club for home runs in back-to-back games. It was the
third time that Wilson had smashed a homer in consecutive days this season.
Berger returned to the hill for the eighth, and after getting the first two men out, he exited to a huge applause from the home crowd. The dugout and bullpen emptied to give Berger his flowers as fellow senior
Nathan Tinder held it down on the mound. Tinder quickly got the third out, flipping the inning over to the top of the Tars lineup – which wasn't quite done. Following a single by Rubin, it was Wilson's time to rewrite the history books. The senior homered yet again, moving him to fourth all-time in Rollins College history for single season homeruns (15) and RBI (65).
PBA got on the board in the ninth courtesy of a Matthew Faranda homerun, but it was too little too late. The Tars coasted to a 9-1 win in game one.
Game Two
Tyler Toro got the nod to start the final home game of the regular season hoping to find the same form he channeled in his last outing in Winter Park. Back on April 17
th, Toro threw six scoreless innings in a win over Eckerd. After a 1-2-3 first inning, Toro was on his way.
The Tars went quietly in the bottom half, and PBA took the lead in top of the second fueled off a leadoff double. The Sailfish put two on the board, but Rollins answered, trimming the lead in half powered by
Rob Buckley's RBI single which scored the hot-swinging Wilson.
But the Sailfish got that run back on a two-out single in the top of the third. Toro stranded two to limit the damage, but PBA took a 3-1 lead into the bottom half. The Tars couldn't scratch any across in either the third or the fourth, and senior
Ryan Murphy took the hill in the top of the fifth looking to keep the deficit right there. That's exactly what he did in his first frame, shutting down the Sailfish in order to retire the side.
Rollins capitalized when it was their turn to swing it. The first three batters reached and
Stephen Deans took full advantage of the bases being juiced, securing himself a pair of RBI on a base hit to left. The clutch ribby knotted the game at three and Rubin put the Tars ahead with a sacrifice fly later in the stanza.
Unfortunately, the lead did not last long. PBA pounced in the top of the sixth, answering with three runs of their own on four hits and an error. The Tars left the bases loaded in the bottom half, failing to answer the Sailfish rally and senior
Douglas Rojas took over looking to keep PBA at bay in the seventh. But the Sailfish weren't satisfied, bringing in another run to extend the lead to 7-4 by way of a sac fly.
The Tars went down in order in the bottom half of the seventh, but
Jeslyn Whitehead trimmed the deficit with one swing of the bat to open the eighth. Despite three errors by the visitors, the Tars couldn't crawl any closer, though, and the score would remain 7-5 into the ninth.
A clean inning by senior
Jackson Edelman kept the Tars hopes alive, but two quick outs seemed to stunt any momentum. Yet, the seniors would not go down without a fight. Three straight Rollins hitters playing in their final home game reached in the form of Whitehead, Wilson and Sparber, who worked a ten-pitch walk. They were all loaded up for senior Buckley, but the Sailfish buckled down to hold on for a 7-5 victory.
The loss drops Rollins to 29-17 on the year and 18-9 in conference play. Next weekend, the Tars will head to Florida Southern to make on the Mocs in a battle for second place in the SSC. First pitch of the series will take place on Thursday at 3pm.
Prior to game one, 17 seniors were honored for their wonderful achievements on and off the field during their time in Winter Park. We would like to recognize the following senior student-athletes for their efforts:
David Pereira
Bennett Durkin
Angelo Ramirez
Corey Zientek
Nathan Tinder
Mason Wilson
Jeslyn Whitehead
Chris Sparber
Kyle Singer
Edward Berry
Ryan Murphy
Douglas Rojas
Nick Berger
Rob Buckley
Jackson Edelman
Dalton Pyzer
Austin Biddle
