Box Score LAKELAND - Trailing 5-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, Florida Southern rallied to score three runs on four hits in the seventh en route to posting a 6-5 victory over Barry in its Sunshine State Conference series opener against the Buccaneers Friday night at historic Henley Field.
With the victory, the Moccasins evened their overall record to 20-20 on the season and moved to 8-11 in the SSC, while Barry fell to 19-25 overall and 6-13 in the SSC.
Heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, the Mocs had recorded only two hits off of Barry starting pitcher Nate Greve, both of which were home runs.
Junior rightfielder Jhalan Jackson (Winter Haven, Fla.) drilled a Greve pitch over the wall in left center for his 15th home run of the season and junior designated hitter Dominic Brugnoni (St. Clair Shores, Mich.) clubbed a Greve pitch over the wall in left field in the sixth inning for a two-run home run to pull with Mocs within 5-3.
In the seventh, Greve allowed a lead-off double to sophomore first baseman Jason Sierra (Sarasota, Fla.) and then moved to third on a Greve wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of junior catcher Blake Swann (Live Oak, Fla.). Junior centerfielder Sam Machonis (Tampa, Fla.) then reached on a one-out single to chase Greve from the game. Senior shortstop Casey Eddinger (Crawfordville, Fla.) drove home the next run as he hit a sacrifice fly to center off of Buccaneer reliever Joeanthony Rivera to tie the game at 5. The third run came home one batter later when senior leftfielder Kyle Richards (Groton, Conn.) reached on a double down the right field line to give the Mocs a 6-5 lead.
After getting a lead, the Mocs turned the game over to sophomore reliever A.J. Smith (Merritt Island, Fla.) and is all the 6-foot righthander did was retire the Bucs in order over the final two innings to earn his third save and preserve a victory for junior hurler Ben Richardson (Orlando, Fla.), who was making his team leading 12th start of the season.
Richardson, who improved to 4-7 on the season, picked up the win as he threw seven innings and allowed 12 hits and five runs, while walking three and striking out two.
The Bucs jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning as they took advantage of a walk, a balk and four hits, including an RBI triple by Kyle Pangallo and an RBI double by J.C. Cardenas.
Jackson's homer in the bottom of the second dropped Barry's lead to 4-1.
The Bucs pushed its lead to 5-1 in the fifth inning thanks to a single, a wild pitch, a ground out and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Jake Jacobs.
FSC would pull within 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a leadoff walk issued to Swann and Brugnoni's two-run home run. The homer was the second of the year for Brugnoni and 41st of the season for the Moccasins.
Greve, who earned a no-decision on the mound, allowed four hits and five runs in 6.1 innings of work and recorded four strikeouts and walked two. Rivera (3-4) took the loss as he pitched the final 1.2 innings and allowed two hits and one run, while striking out two and walking none.
The Mocs, who finished the game with six hits, was paced offensively by two hits from Brugnoni.
Barry did manage to shut down one Moccasin bat on the night as they forced senior third baseman Chris Dennis (Rockledge, Fla.) to go 0-for-4 at the plate, including striking out for just the seventh time in 170 at-bats on the year. By failing to reach base, Dennis, who entered the night hitting .410 on the season, snapped a 37 game streak of reaching base.
Cardenas, Pangallo, Jonathan Quintana, Mike Diaz and Christian Khawly each recorded two hits in the night for the Bucs as they finished with 12 hits in the game.
The two teams will conclude the three-game SSC series by playing a doubleheader on Saturday, April 25 beginning at 1 p.m. Prior to the game, the Mocs will honor its 10 member senior class in a pregame ceremony. The seniors this season are Dennis, Eddinger, Richards, pitcher Austin Barnett (Lakeland, Fla.), outfielder Colton Davis (Lake Wales, Fla.), pitcher Casey Eskew (Sarasota, Fla.), pitcher Jerrod Flanagan (St. Petersburg, Fla.), outfielder Trevor Freeman (Shalimar, Fla.), catcher Joey Miller (Sarsota, Fla.) and pitcher Jake Popovich (Danville, Calif.).
