Box Score LAKELAND - Florida Southern rode the strong pitching of junior Ben Richardson and the hot bat of junior centerfielder Sam Machonis to post a 6-3 victory over Rollins in Thursday's Sunshine State Conference series opener at Henley Field.
On the night, Richardson, who is a native of Orlando, Fla., pitched seven innings and scattered nine hits and allowed three runs, while striking out four and walked one in the 97 pitch effort to improve to 3-5 on the season. Meanwhile, Machonis, who is a native of Tampa, Fla., delivered the key hit in the bottom of the fourth inning as he blasted a Matt Tulley pitch over the fence in right field for a 3-run homer to give the Mocs a 4-2 lead.
For the game, Machonis went 3-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored and 3 RBIs. FSC's offense finished the night with 11 hits as senior third baseman Chris Dennis (Rockledge, Fla.) and sophomore first baseman Jason Sierra (Sarasota, Fla.) each recorded two hits in the win. Both of Dennis' hits were doubles to push his team-leading total to 13 on the season.
With the victory, the Mocs improve to 13-15 overall and 3-7 in the SSC, while Rollins falls to 15-19 overall and 2-11 in the SSC.
The Tars, who have dropped four straight games, opened the scoring in the top of the fourth inning thanks to a 2-run, 2-out single off the bat of Christian Coburn, who had two of the Tars' 11 hits and two its RBIs in the loss.
FSC, who has now won two straight games after concluding its series last weekend at Florida Tech with a 3-0 win in Sunday's series finale, would come right back in the bottom of the fourth and score four runs to take its 4-2 lead. The inning began with a lead-off double from Dennis, which extended his hitting streak to 26 consecutive games and then Dennis scored the first run of the inning one batter later when junior right fielder Jhalen Jackson (Winter Haven, Fla.) delivered an RBI single up the middle. After junior designated hitter Blake Swann (Live Oak, Fla.) flew out for the first out, Sierra reached on a single through the right side that put runners on first and third, before Machonis hit his fourth home run of the season to clear the bases.
The Tars would pull within 4-3 in the sixth inning thanks to a single, a sacrifice bunt and an RBI single off the bat of Bryan Perlmutter.
FSC would answer Rollins' run in the bottom of the sixth to push its lead to 5-3. In the inning, the Mocs took advantage of two hits and two Tars errors to score an unearned run on an RBI single off the bat of senior shortstop Casey Eddinger (Crawfordville, Fla.). The hit by Eddinger raised his season batting average to .340.
The Mocs would then add an insurance run in the eighth inning thanks to an RBI single by senior catcher Joey Miller (Sarasota, Fla.). Miller's single allowed Machonis to score from second after he reached on a one-out single to center off of Rollins' reliever Caleb Jakes and moved to second on an interference play by Rollins' second baseman Carlos Garmendia.
Sophomore A.J. Smith (Merritt Island, Fla.) pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning in relief of Richardson and senior Casey Eskew (Sarasota, Fla.) allowed a double and single in the ninth, but didn't allow any runs thanks to a double play and a pop out to end the game to seal his third save of the season.
In addition to Coburn's two hits, Garmendia and Blake Hutton each had two hits for the Tars on the night.
Tulley (3-6) pitched seven innings and allowed nine hits and five runs (four earned), while walking one and striking out five.
Rollins committed two errors for the game, while FSC had one error, which came in third inning by Sierra on a grounder hit by Grant Ashline.
The two teams will conclude the three-game series with a doubleheader on Friday, April 3 beginning at 1 p.m.
