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Box Score 2 MELBOURNE, Fla. - The 2016 season came to a close for the Eckerd baseball team on Saturday afternoon as the Tritons dropped both ends of a double-header to Florida Tech by scores of 7-2 and 6-2.
In the opener, the Panthers got a stellar performance from Ty Cohen, who went the distance in picking up his ninth win of the season. The sophomore kept Eckerd off-balance the entire game, fanning 11 batters while scattering seven hits over nine innings.
The Tritons found themselves in an early hole thanks to a three-run first inning by FIT against Eckerd starter
Mike Eagan (3-1). Eagan held the Panthers to only one more run over the next two innings before giving way to
Joey Favetta. The freshman capped his impressive debut season by allowing just one run in three innings of relief while striking out three.
For the second game in a row, Florida Tech took a 7-0 lead after seven innings but unlike last night, Eckerd was unable to rally. The Tritons did score runs in both the eighth and ninth innings on RBIs from
Justin Glover and
Nick Conti.
Eckerd scored in the top of the first to open the second fame via a Conti single with two outs, but the Panthers tied it with a run in the bottom of the inning and took the lead with another run in the second. Both runs were unearned and came with two outs.
FIT made it 4-1 in the third, swiping three bases to create scoring chances, as six pitchers combined to preserve the lead. Eckerd didn't score again until the eighth when
Grant Banko's double drove in
Garrett Hiott. The Tritons had an opportunity again in the ninth after back-to-back one-out singles by
Jake O'Rourke and
Carter Cashman, but both were stranded to end the game.
A trio of Eckerd relievers -
Dillon McCollough,
Kevin Kane and
Lucas Spetsas - combined to allow only one run in five-plus innings of work, giving the Tritons a chance to stage a comeback. But the Florida Tech relief crew was equally as good as the Panthers took the final game of the series.
O'Rourke went 2-for-4 in his final college game and capped his career with a hit in his final at-bat along with classmate Cashman and Banko.
Alex Moore (2-5) was saddled with the loss, going 3-1/3 innings while allowing five runs - two earned - and striking out three.
Eckerd finishes the season with an overall record of 17-28 and a 5-19 mark in the Sunshine State Conference.
