Tritons Split Saturday, Take Weekend Series From Barry

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Eckerd baseball team claimed its second consecutive Sunshine State Conference series, splitting a Saturday doubleheader with Barry to take two of three games over the weekend.

A late rally fell short in Saturday's opener in a 12-8 loss, but the Tritons made a statement in the finale with a 13-3 win

Eckerd (12-14, 4-5 SSC) jumped ahead quickly in the second game of today's twinbill, building an 8-0 lead after four innings.  

A five-run fourth inning did most of the damage, including a three-run inside-the-park home run from Garrett Hiott.  All five of EC's runs came with two outs, with the rally starting via a Sam Cochrane solo home run.

Barry broke up Kevin Kane's shutout bid with a leadoff home run in the fifth by Andrew Rapoza and added two more in the sixth to trim into Eckerd's lead, but the Tritons answered with five runs in the bottom of the sixth.  EC got RBI's from Hiott, Chase Achuff and Justin Glover in the frame while taking advantage of two Buccaneer errors.

Justin Carrillo and Jack Mahan took care of the rest, combining to keep Barry scoreless over the final three innings.

Kane (3-3) got the win in the finale, allowing one earned run over 5-2/3 innings while striking out three. 

Eckerd tallied a season-high 15 hits in the win as Mitch Calandra led the way with his second 4-for-5 game of the series.  Cochrane, Hiott, Nick Conti and Tom Buonopane each had two hits while Hiott had six RBIs.

In the opener, Barry hit three home runs in the first five innings to take a 5-2 lead, then added three runs in the sixth for a sizable lead.

The Tritons scored two in the seventh on a Calandra RBI single and an error, but the Bucs responded with four runs in the top of the eighth for a 12-4 lead.

EC came back to cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the inning, scoring four times.  Hiott blasted a solo home run ahead of Buonopane's two-run double. Glover followed with a double to bring in Buonopane.

However, that was as close as the Tritons could get as they stranded two in the ninth.

Alex Moore (0-3) took the loss, allowing five runs over five innings of work.  Conti, Buonopane and Hiott each had three hits.  Buonopane drove in three, including a solo home run.

The Tritons have a week off before returning to conference play next weekend with a visit to Florida Southern.