Zach Maggard homered twice and drove in five runs and the Moccasins withstood eighth and ninth inning rallies by Eckerd to down the Tritons 9-6 Friday night in their Sunshine State Conference series opener at St. Petersburg.
Maggard hit a three-run homer over the center field fence in the fourth and delivered a two-run blast over the fence in right field in the eighth, giving him eight home runs for the season. Trae Gore added a solo homer in the ninth, his ninth of the season. In addition to two hits each from Maggard and Gore, Tyler Benzel had three hits and drove in a run.
With the win the Moccasins improved their record to 25-4, 5-2 in the SSC, while Eckerd dropped to 14-12, 0-7 in the SSC.
Max Russell pitched the first five innings to improve his record to 7-0. He struck out eight and walked four. Daniel Tillman was able to halt the Eckerd rallies in the eighth and ninth to earn his seventh save of the season, which gave him the FSC career record for saves with 24.
A three-run eighth inning by the Moccasins gave them a 7-3 lead going to the bottom of the eighth. Tucker Pryor, who had replaced Russell in the sixth and retired the first six batters he faced, gave up a pair of singles to start the inning. Lefthander Ryan Wolfe came on for Pryor to face lefthand-batting pinch hitter Joe Dabah, who reached on an error to load the bases with no outs.
Tillman took over for Wolfe. Stephen Pelc reached on a fielder's choice, scoring one run. Wess Hollins singled to left, scoring two more. After retiring the next two batters on a sacrifice and a strikeout, Tillman intentionally walked Minervino Labrador to load the bases, then struck out Oliver Killoren to end the inning, leaving the Moccasins ahead 7-6.
The Moccasins picked up a pair of insurance runs in the ninth on Gore's solo homer and Wade Kirkland's two-out RBI-double.
In the Eckerd ninth, the Tritons got a one-out single from Kevin Rea and a double from pinch-hitter Joey LaRose to put runners at second and third, but Tillman struck out Pelc and retired Hollins on a close play at first to end the game.
The two teams play a doubleheader Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. Petersburg.
