Tritons Split Twinbill, Take Series From Rollins

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 WINTER PARK, Fla. - The Eckerd baseball team split a Saturday doubleheader at Rollins, taking two out of three games from the Tars in the weekend Sunshine State Conference series.

Eckerd (8-13, 2-4 SSC) won the first game, 9-7, before Rollins avoided the series sweep with a 9-5 win in the finale.

The Tritons jumped ahead early in the opener behind a four-run second inning that included a bases-loaded double by Mitch Calandra.

Rollins, though, trimmed away at the lead and eventually tied the game in the fourth, and both teams scored a run in the fifth to keep the score knotted at 5-5.

In the sixth, Eckerd took advantage of two errors by the Tars to bring in three runs and held onto the lead for the rest of the game. Nick Conti gave the Tritons a bit of a cushion in the seventh with a two-out ground-rule double that scored Daniel Autiello.

The Tars threatened in the eighth after a leadoff home run by Peter Nicoletto preceded a single and a walk to bring the go-ahead run to the plate.  Joey Favetta, however, got Nick Santucci to fly out to end the inning and strand two.

Jack Mahan finished things for Eckerd in the ninth, tossing a scoreless inning for his second save of the year.

EC used eight pitchers in the game with Derek Lamensdorf (2-0) picking up the win.  The combination of Justin Carrillo, Cameron Lanzilli, Gardner Nutter, Lucas Spetsas and Favetta helped preserve the lead for Mahan, who closed the door in the ninth.

Calandra and Chase Achuff both had two hits for the Tritons in the day's opener.

In the series finale, Rollins (14-6, 1-2 SSC) scored one in the first and three in the second for a 4-0 lead, but Eckerd responded with four runs in the top of the third to tie the game via RBI singles from Conti and Calandra and a sacrifice fly by Tom Buonopane.

EC took the lead in the top of the sixth on a successfully-executed squeeze bunt from Achuff, but the lead was short-lived as the Tars came back with three runs in the bottom of the inning including a two-run home run by Nicoletto.

Rollins added two more runs in the seventh while holding the Tritons scoreless for the rest of the game.

Eckerd returns to the Turley Athletic Complex for five games next week, beginning on Tuesday against the University of Bridgeport (Conn.) at 6:00 PM.