LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern College baseball team lost 10-7 in a back-and-forth battle with the Saint Leo Lions Saturday afternoon at Historic Henley Field. The series is even after the Mocs won game one yesterday.
The Mocs (4-5, 1-1) went back-and-forth with the Lions throughout the entire game, including four total home runs between the teams. Saint Leo (7-4, 1-1) took the lead in the eighth and held on for the 10-7 win.
The Lions scored first after Buck Anderson stole back-to-back bases then brought home for the 1-0 lead in the first inning. Florida Southern had an a two-run deficit into the bottom of the second inning after Saint Leo scored again on a sacrifice fly but was able to cut into the lead. A strong double to center by
Seth Cannady put
Connor Berry up for an RBI single and 2-1 Lions lead into the third inning.
A busy top of the fourth for the Mocs as the Lions had two in scoring position after two hits, but
Aric McAtee notched a strikeout to keep two on base for Saint Leo. The Mocs responded with a one-pitch homer by
Duncan Hunter to tie the game 2-2 through four innings. With two outs in the top of the fifth, Sam Crail for the Lions hit a 2-run homer and again take the 4-2 lead.
Florida Southern were unable to cut into the Saint Leo lead in the bottom of the fifth, but a switch on the mound to
Logan Verrino and groundouts left two on base for the Lions. A single by
Nathan Chevalier set up a two-run homer by Cannady and a 4-4 tie game to end the sixth.
To continue with the home run scoring, the Lions had another two-run homer, this time by Bobby Sparling with another Saint Leo lead in the seventh. Florida Southern managed two hits and two runs to again tie the back-and-forth game 6-6 to end the seventh inning.
Saint Leo scored twice in the eighth which the Mocs had two on base with two outs but were unable to convert as the Mocs had the two-run deficit into the last inning. The Lions continued to build their lead with another two-run homer by Sparling, his second of the day, and 10-6 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
Jeff Liquori scored for the Mocs to narrow the deficit to three, but the Lions held on for a 10-7 win.
UP NEXT
The Mocs will finish the Saint Leo series with game three tomorrow afternoon, set for a 1 p.m. start.
