Back-to-back Walk-off Wins in Extras Lifts Mocs Over Fighting Knights

LAKELAND, Fla. – Back-to-back walk-off games lifted the Florida Southern College baseball team to a series win against Lynn University on Saturday afternoon at Henley Field.
 
The Mocs (14-22, 8-10 SSC) rallied from a series-opening loss to sweep the Saturday doubleheader with two extra-inning battles at home. FSC outlasted LU in game one of the day with a 7-6 win in 11 innings and carried the momentum to a 3-2 win in the series finale to take the conference series. The Fighting Knights (21-20, 7-14 SSC) could not stop the Mocs late with back-to-back RBI walk-offs on the day to lose the series 2-1.
 
FLORIDA SOUTHERN 7, LYNN 6 (11 INN.)
The Moccasins opened game one of the doubleheader with an RBI single by Jaiden Warde for the first run of the day. Back-to-back walks for Bryce Safferwich and Jack Duffy led to the runners on, with Safferwich the run scorer and a 1-0 lead in the first, though two were still left on.
 
Marcos Herrand handled business on the mound with a strong FSC defense to keep Lynn scoreless for the first five innings, which the Mocs turned into solo runs in consecutive innings for a 3-0 lead. The bottom of the third led off with an out, but Safferwich had a single up the middle and advanced to third off a wild pitch and passed ball. Duffy had a big sacrifice fly to right field to send Safferwich home for the second run of the day. In the bottom fourth, FSC had another solo run, this time from an RBI single by Jevin Relaford to send Warde home for the 3-0 lead.
 
A tough sixth inning for the Mocs led to four Lynn runs and a lead change off two hits and an error. FSC was quick to turn the table with a massive three-run homer by El'Rico Riley in the next half-inning to retake the lead with a 6-4 score. The Mocs controlled the lead for the next few innings until the top of the ninth as Lynn tied the game with costly infield errors. A single by Warde in the bottom ninth went unanswered to send the game into extras.
 
Neither team scored in the top of the 10^th, though FSC walked off in the bottom of the 11^th. A quick groundout to leadoff didn't deter the Mocs as three straight singles put runners in scoring position. Safferwich had the first single, followed by Duffy, as the winning single was from Rohsean Riley to send Safferwich home for the 7-6 walk-off in the 11^th.
 
Mocs dominated at the plate with 14 hits to Lynn's five. Safferwich and Warde each had four hits and Brady Doorey had two as three Mocs with multi-hit games. Safferwich led with three runs on the day. Herrand had a tough two innings but went nine full innings as the first Moccasin pitcher to reach nine innings since 2018. He finished the day with five strikeouts and only one walk with all six of his runs unearned. Tanner Rollyson pitched the final two innings allowing only one hit and two strikeouts for his third win of the season. Hayner was handed the loss, his third.
                                                                              
FLORIDA SOUTHERN 3, LYNN 2 (10 INN.)
Another extra-inning battle for the Mocs began with another Florida Southern leadoff run with a sacrifice fly by Warde to send E. Riley home. The following inning had another solo run for FSC with an RBI single by Relaford for Doorey to score and a quick 2-0 lead for FSC.
 
FSC went scoreless over the next seven innings as Lynn added a solo run in back-to-back innings in the fifth and sixth to tie the game. Mocs had seven hits in the first nine innings, led by Doorey's two hits and solo hits with all but three of the starting lineup. Logan Adams had the start for the Moccasins and had a good first four innings to keep LU scoreless with two strikeouts. The first run for Lynn was a solo homer by Judge and in the sixth, the Fighting Knights scored on a double play that the runner tagged before play ended to tie the game in the sixth a two apiece.
 
Neither score managed a run in the next three innings to send into extras that included great clutch strikeouts or flyouts from reliever Mitchell LeRoy to keep Lynn at bay and more opportunities for the Mocs. In the bottom of the 10^th, FSC had a leadoff triple by R. Riley, and back-to-back intentional walks to Warde and Collins loaded the bases for Doorey with no outs. In the first pitch of his at-bat, Doorey batted the winning RBI single to center for the 3-2 walk-off win to take the series.
 
Doorey led the team with three hits, his second consecutive game with 2+ hits. R. Riley was right behind with two hits as each team left 10 on base in the series finale. Adams had the start and ended with seven innings pitched, two earned runs, and two strikeouts. LeRoy, pitching in relief, went three innings and was credited with his fourth win of the season. LeRoy had four hits to match his four strikeouts that left Lynn stranded with no runs scored in his time at the mound.
 
The Mocs will remain in Lakeland to host Nova Southeastern University for a three-day series next weekend, beginning on Friday, April 19 at 6 p.m. at Henley Field.
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