LAKELAND, Fla. – The No. 20 Florida Southern College baseball team dropped its series finale against Wayne State University by a 4-3 score on Sunday afternoon at Henley Field.
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The Moccasins (22-6, 7-2 SSC) still won the series 3-1 after a lengthy weekend. The Warriors (10-13, 0-0 GLIAC) outlasted FSC in a pitching battle, eventually scoring the winning run in the ninth inning.
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Florida Southern had a slight edge in the hit category, 5-to-4, against the Warriors. The Mocs had solo hits by
Mikey Scott, Cleary Simpson, Rohsean Riley, Chris McKenna, and
BJ Rivera, with Riley the only RBI credited in the lineup.
Ethan Breslin got his first start of the season, struggling early before being relieved by
Tanner Rollyson. Rollyson kept WSU scoreless through 5.2 innings of work to keep the game tied and within reach.
Casey O'Dell and
Wyatt Clark later entered and had productive outings, not allowing any hits or runs with a combined 1.2 innings.
Aidan Kelley entered in the top of the ninth and was handed the loss after a single run was scored.
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Wayne State had a multi-hit day from Garza, two, for half of the hits managed in the game. Hatzigeorgio scored two runs in his three at-bats, including the game-winning run at the plate in the ninth. Hitzelberger started for WSU, pulling extra work on the mound, DH, and later first base duties in the series finale. Getting relieved him to earn the win, allowing just one hit in his five innings.
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A hot start for the Warriors with three runs scored in the first inning, though FSC got one back in the bottom half with an RBI single by Riley. The game slowed down with a few scoreless innings until wild pitches with bases loaded in the fourth inning scored two runs for FSC to tie the game, 3-3. The pitching on both sides settled in with another stretch of scoreless innings, led by a great outing by Rollyson, keeping the game tied through six innings. FSC entered O'Dell, who had a productive outing to continue with a scoreless game through eight innings, 3-3. In the top of the ninth, the Warriors took the lead on a sacrifice bunt after the play at the plate was not in time, eventually retiring the bottom half as FSC lost 4-3.
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The Mocs will remain in Lakeland to host No. 1 University of Tampa next weekend, March 28-29, beginning with a 6 p.m. start on Friday.
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