McCollough Tosses One-Hitter as Tritons Defeat Cedarville

Box Score ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Dillon McCollough will be hard-pressed to top the performance he put on tonight.

The sophomore tossed a one-hitter with 11 strikeouts and out-dueled his counterparts from Cedarville (Ohio) as the Tritons defeated the Yellow Jackets, 1-0, at the Turley Athletic Complex.

McCollough (1-2) retired the first nine batters he faced and didn't allow an earned baserunner until a leadoff walk in the sixth inning.

On the rare occasions that he did put runners on base, the Triton defense helped him out.

McCollough issued three of his four walks in the sixth inning, but the first two were erased on the basepaths via pick-offs.

In the seventh, Cedarville (0-4) put runners on the corners with two outs for pinch-hitter Joey Chapman.  Chapman appeared to have brought in the tying run from third with a line drive into right field, but Sam Cochrane made an outstanding play throwing out Chapman at first base to end the inning.

That was the last chance the Jackets had as McCollough retired six of the last seven batters and struck out three in the ninth to post the complete game shutout.

The Tritons (5-11) scored the game's only run in the bottom of the sixth.  Nick Conti drew a walk to lead off the inning, then took an extra base on a sacrifice bunt by Cochrane to advance to third.  After a walk by Tom Buonopane put runners on the corners, Chase Achuff's grounder to short was enough to bring Conti across home plate.

McCollough's 11 strikeouts tied his career high, which he previously established on opening day against the University of Montevallo.  It was the second complete game of his career.

Cochrane went 2-for-3 to extend his hitting streak to 16 games while Conti went 1-for-2 with a pair of walks, pushing his streak of reaching base safely to 16.  Mitch Calandra also had two hits.

The Tritons return to the field tomorrow for the 10th game of an 11-game home stand, hosting Rockhurst (Mo.) at 8:00 PM.