Box Score WINTER PARK, Fla. - The Eckerd baseball team received yet another strong performance from its pitching staff and earned its first conference win of the year with a 5-3 victory over Rollins on Friday night.
Dillon McCollough posted 6-1/3 strong innings, and relievers
Joey Favetta and
Jack Mahan both stranded inherited runners as the Tritons won for the fourth time in their last five games.
Eckerd (7-12, 1-3 SSC) overcame a 3-1 deficit, tying the game in the sixth inning. Â After
Justin Glover and
Chase Achuff had back-to-back singles to open the inning,
Daniel Autiello brought Glover home on an RBI groundout that also advanced Achuff to third.
Achuff then scored the tying run on a wild pitch with two outs.
Favetta relieved McCollough with one out and a runner on base in the bottom of the seventh. Â He kept the game tied as he fanned two batters to leave the go-ahead run at third.
The Tritons then took the lead in the top of the eighth. Â Autiello drew a two-out walk followed by a
Steven Salisbury single that was then misplayed by the Tars' Mike Dolan, allowing Autiello to score all the way from first.
Rollins loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the frame but Mahan came up big in relief, striking out Nick Santucci looking before getting Isaiah Russell to hit into an inning-ending double-play.
Garrett Hiott's squeeze in the ninth brought in
Nick Conti to add an insurance run to the board, and Mahan took care of the rest allowing only one runner in the ninth via an error.
Tom Buonopane gave Eckerd an early lead with a two-out RBI single in the third, but Eckerd missed a chance to do more damage and left the bases loaded.
Buonopane and Conti each had two hits for Eckerd. Â Conti also drew two walks to reach base safely four times and extend his streak to 19 games.
Mahan (2-0) picked up the win, throwing two hitless innings in relief. Â McCollough put together another quality start in a no-decision, striking out seven and giving up only one earned run over 6-1/3 innings.
The series concludes on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at noon.
