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LAKELAND - Florida Southern sent off its eight-member senior class with a memorable Senior Day as split a doubleheader here Friday afternoon against Rollins in Sunshine State Conference action at historic Henley Field.
Friday's doubleheader was the final two games of the season for both FSC and Rollins and with Friday's split, the Moccasins close the season by taking its final SSC series of the year as they won 2-of-3 games against the Tars. It marks the third consecutive season that the Mocs ended the season with a series win over Rollins.
Prior to the first game of Friday's doubleheader, the Mocs honored its eight seniors in a pregame ceremony. This year's seniors are catcher Brad Carlton (Arcadia, Fla.), pitcher Mike Czenszak (Dowingtown, Pa.), pitcher Matt Fuglesang (Land O'Lakes, Fla.), shortstop Kyle Gibbs (Sarasota, Fla.), leftfielder/pitcher Austin Jackson (Deltona, Fla.), first baseman Kyle Jackson (Avon Park, Fla.), designated hitter Colin Kish (Philadelphia, Pa.), and pitcher Jack Sterritt (Ponte Vedra, Fla.).
Rollins posted a come-from-behind 7-5 win (Box Score) in the opener, before the Mocs jumped out to a 5-0 in the first inning and never looked back in posting a 10-0 victory (Box Score) in the nightcap. The shutout victory in the nightcap was just the fourth shutout of the season for the Mocs and first since posting a 13-0 win in the series opener at Florida Tech on April 19.
With the split, the Mocs close out the year with an 18-28 overall record and finish with a 10-14 mark in the SSC, while Rollins finishes with a 24-23-1 overall record and a 9-14-1 mark in the league. With the series win, the Mocs finish league play in seventh place as Rollins came in eighth and Eckerd was ninth.
In the nightcap, the Mocs took advantage of some wildness from three Rollins pitchers in the opening inning to score five runs on four hits. In the inning, three Tar pitchers combined to walk three hitters and hit two batters as the Mocs snet 11 batters to the plate.
FSC got the scoring started in the first inning on an RBI double by Gibbs that plated junior second baseman Conor Szczerba (Titusville, Fla.), who was hit by a pitch from Isaiah Sakany leading off the inning. After Gibbs advanced to third on wild pitch by Sakany, sophomore third baseman Keith Curcio (Sarasota, Fla.) made the score 2-0 on his infield RBI single and after Sakany put runners on first and second thanks to a single by Kish and walk to Kyle Jackson, Brett Mueller was summoned out of the bullpen and he walked Austin Jackson to load the bases. The Mocs added its third run when Carlton was hit by a Mueller pitch and then scored its fourth run on an infield RBI single by junior centerfielder J.J. Downum (Land O'Lakes, Fla.) and completed the scoring when Szczerba, who was batting for the second time in the inning, drew a bases loaded walk from Mueller, who failed to retire any of the four batters he faced. Mueller was replaced by Brandon Burgess and he proceeded to end the inning by forcing Curcio to line out to left.
The five run cushion would be enough for junior Brian Johnson (Oldsmar, Fla.) as he pitched five shutout innings and allowed just three hits, while walking one and striking out two to improve to 4-6 on the season. Czenszak and junior Nate Carter (Boca Raton, Fla.) combined to each pitch an innings and allow just two hits and record one strikeout.
FSC's lead grew to 9-0 in the third inning as they sent nine batters to the plate and recorded four hits, including scoring a run on a wild pitch by Burgess, added two runs on RBI singles by Szczerba and redshirt freshman Dominic Brugnoni (St. Clair Shores, Mich.) and plated its fourth run on a throwing error Rollins' shortstop Yuta Okazaki.
Curcio completed the game's scoring on a solo home run over the right field fence off of Rollins' Matt Hendricks in the sixth inning to push the Mocs lead to 10-0. The homer was the second of the season for Curcio and the 18th of the season for the Mocs. Curcio finished the game with two hits to push his season total to a team-leading 60 and he also collected a stolen base to finish with 29 on the season as he was 29-for-34 on steals for the season.
Hendricks was the fifth Tar pitcher in the game as he allowed three hits and one run and struck out two in his only inning of work. On the game, Rollins' pitchers allowed 11 hits, nine earned runs, walked four and hit two Moc batters.
In addition to Curcio's two hits, Downum went 2-for-2 at the plate before being replaced by freshman Christian Magno (Longwood, Fla.) in the line-up in the fourth inning and Austin Jackson also finished with two hits and scored two runs in his final collegiate game. Szczerba and Gibbs each scored two runs and combined for two hits and three RBIs in the nightcap.
With his two RBIs in the nightcap, Szczerba finished his first season with the Mocs with 32 RBIs, which was second-most on the team behind Kyle Jackson's 33 and scored a team-high 38 runs and was 18-for-21 on stolen bases.
Steve Betcherman had three of Rollins' five hits in the nightcap as the Tars closed the season with a loss to the Mocs for the third consecutive season.
Meanwhile, in Friday's opener, the Mocs jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single by Curcio that plated Szczerba, who had walked to lead off the inning, moved to second when Gibbs drew a walk from Taylor Smith and advanced to third on a wild pitch by Smith before scoring.
The Tars tied the game in the second inning thanks to one hit and two Moccasin errors that led to an unearned run.
Rollins took a 2-1 lead in the third inning on a leadoff home run by Boston Langley off of junior starter Alex Norris (Clearwater, Fla.).
The Mocs retook the lead in the bottom of the third inning as they used two hits to score three runs to push in front 4-2. In the inning, Kish drove home two runs on his 2-run single to right center and Kyle Jackson drove home the other run on a groundout to the pitcher. The RBI by Jackson was his team-leading 32nd of the season.
Norris would cruise along through the next two innings as he allowed just one base runner that was eventually retired on a 4-6-3 double play in the fifth inning, but ran into trouble in the sixth inning as the Tars sent 10 batters to the plate and scored five runs on five hits to take a 7-4 lead. The two big hits in the inning were 2-run singles off the bats of Thomas Kelly and Zach Persky. Persky's single chased Norris from the game and brought junior Nick Krolczyk (Coral Springs, Fla.) out of the bullpen.
For the game, Norris (2-6) pitched 5.2 innings and allowed nine hits and seven runs (six earned), while striking out four and walking none.
The Mocs had a scoring chance in the bottom of the seventh inning as they loaded the bases with two outs thanks to singles by Curcio and Brugnoni and a walk issued by Tars reliever Eric Morse to Kish, but Morse would get out of the jam by forcing Kyle Jackson to ground out to second to end the inning.
In the eighth, the Mocs pulled within 7-5 thanks an RBI on a fielder's choice by Szczerba that plated sophomore catcher Joey Miller (Sarasota, Fla.), who was hit by a Morse pitch leading off the inning. Redshirt junior leftfielder Michael Anthony (Stuart, Fla.) and Downum would then reach on back-to-back singles to load the bases before Szczerba's fielder's choice grounder.
Sterritt retired the three batters he faced in the eighth in his final collegiate appearance, while Fuglesang allowed one hit and struck out two in his final collegiate appearance on the mound in the ninth inning.
Smith (7-4) earned the win for the Tars as he pitched six innings and allowed four hits and four runs, while walking five and striking out eight. Morse allowed four hits and one run, while walking one and striking out one over the final three innings to record his sixth save of the season.
The Mocs finished the game with eight hits Szczerba and Curcio each recorded two hits in the loss, while Szczerba scored two runs and Kish had two RBIs in the game.
Rollins recorded 10 hits as Brett Flutie and Kelly each had two hits in the win, while Hendricks scored twice and Persky had 2 RBIs.
