Box Score
MELBOURNE â€" Florida Southern played well here Tuesday evening against Florida Tech, but three errors made the difference as the Panthers used a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth to post a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the Moccasins in a non-conference battle against two Sunshine State Conference foes at Seminick-Hall Field.
The Mocs (1-3) offense stuttered in the top of the first inning, but showed itself late in the inning in the form of a two-out double to right field by junior centerfielder Keith Curcio (Sarasota, Fla.) to extend his hitting streak to seven games to tie his career high for a third time. Senior first baseman Trey Vavra (Menomonie, Wis.) followed Curcio's double by getting hit by a pitch after looking at a strike. The offense would be halted there, however, as junior third baseman Chris Dennis (Rockledge, Fla.) grounded into a fielder’s choice.
Tech, who improved to 4-0 on the season, would create a small rally of their own in the bottom half of the frame when they got a one-out single to shortstop. The next batter would send a fly ball to deep right field that could not be hauled in by redshirt sophomore Dominic Brugnoni (St. Clair Shores, Mich.) to set up a first-and third situation for the Panthers. Like FSC, though, they were unable to bring anyone home as sophomore Moccasin starter Jake Popovich (Danville, Calif.) forced a pop-up to short and a struck out Jimmie Koch to leave two runners stranded.
FSC’s second inning looked almost identical to that of the first where a two-out hit by junior catcher Joey Miller (Sarasota, Fla.) opened the base paths. They would close right after that, though, as junior shortstop Casey Eddinger (Rockledge, Fla.) grounded into a fielder’s choice to second base ended the top half of the second.
Popovich settled in over the next few innings as he shut down the Panthers offense in two straight innings. Popovitch allowed just one runner over those innings, which was a single by Andrew Bartlett, but he got too greedy as he was picked off trying to steal second. FSC would suffer a similar fate as only Curcio would reach base during that stretch on a walk. In his Moccasin debut, Popovich threw six innings and allowed three hits and no runs, while striking out four and walking two.
The Mocs woke up in the sixth inning when junior left fielder Trevor Freeman (Shalimar, Fla.) led off the inning with a single to left, although he would later be picked-off at first. Curcio redeemed Freeman by hitting his second double of the day, this time to right center. He would steal third base without a throw to swipe his second bag of the game. Vavra chopped the ball into the ground right in front of home plate, but catcher Austin Allen could not hold on to the ball as he went to tag the Moccasin first baseman, allowing him to reach safely on the error. Dennis came up to the plate and lined a single into left to break the scoreless tie and drive in the game's first run. Brugnoni was able to beat out a throw from the Panther third baseman that would have turned his fielder’s choice into an inning-ending double-play to keep things alive. Brugnoni's hustle paid off because the next batter, senior designated hitter Jimmy Correnti (Fort Meyers, Fla.) pulled the ball into right field, scoring Dennis for the second run of the inning to give FSC a 2-0 lead.
The Panthers would get the runs back in the bottom of the seventh when a leadoff single and a single with a throwing error advanced the runners to second and third with no outs. A passed ball would cause each of the two runners to advance 90 feet, and cut the Mocs lead in half, 2-1. After senior second baseman Conor Szczerba (Titusville, Fla.) looked back the runner at third and got the out at first, Andrew Bartlett recorded his second of three hits which brought in the tying run. In an attempt to get himself into scoring position and hopefully take the lead, Bartlett got thrown out trying to steal second base. That would end the Panther rally, but the damage had already been done.
FSC would not be able to figure out relief pitcher Panther relief pitcher Gerardo Dudamel as he came in and threw the final three innings for the Panthers. Dudamel (1-0) allowed just one hit and recorded one strikeout in his outing and notched his first win of the season.
Senior pitcher Nate Carter (Boca Raton, Fla.) came to the mound for the Mocs in the bottom of the eighth inning after a leadoff walk chased junior reliever Casey Eskew (Sarasota, Fla.) from the game. After giving up a single, Carter zeroed-in on his target and struck one of the next three Panthers out while getting the others to fly out to Curcio in center to keep the game tied at 2-all.
After recording his second strikeout of the game to open the bottom of the ninth inning, Carter gave up a triple to Dan Bodziak when a fly ball hit to left field was just out of the reach of a diving Freeman and then Bartlett came up with another big hit in the game as he singled to left to end the game with one out.
On the night, the Mocs finished seven hits, including Curcio recording two hits in three at-bats and he also recorded two stolen bases on the night, while Tech finished the game with nine hits as in addition to Bartlett's three hits, Grant McKown had two hits in the win for the Panthers. Â
The Mocs will return to action this weekend as they travel to Salisbury, N.C. for a three-game series against Catawba College. The first game of the three-game series is set for Friday, Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 8, the two teams will play a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
