Conti's Homers Lift Tritons to Series Win Over Lynn

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 BOCA RATON, Fla. - The Eckerd baseball team split a Saturday doubleheader at Lynn taking the opener, 5-4, before the Fighting Knights salvaged the final game of the series with a 10-5 win in the finale.

After Friday night's victory, the Tritons (17-24, 6-9 SSC) took the series from Lynn, two games to one, as the final stretch of conference play began this weekend.

Nick Conti's solo home run in the top of the ninth broke a 4-4 tie, and Robin Allen cruised through the bottom of the inning to preserve the victory in the day's opener.

The homer for Conti was his second of the day following another solo home run that he launched in the seventh to give Eckerd a brief lead.  Lynn (25-18, 9-12 SSC) answered with its own solo shot from Jonathan Corbitt to tie the game until Conti came to the plate again two innings later.

It marked the second year in a row for Conti to hit a game-winning home run against Lynn.  Last year, he did it in walkoff fashion in the 10th inning after hitting a game-tying blast in the ninth at the Turley Athletic Complex.

The Knights took an early 3-0 lead after one inning behind a pair of home runs off EC starter Alex Moore.  However, Moore shut down their bats over the next four innings before leaving the game with an injury in the sixth inning when he was hit on the arm by a ball hit back up the middle.

The Tritons tied the game with a three-run fifth, getting an RBI double from Chase Achuff and a two-run single from Sam Cochrane.

Conti then gave EC the lead twice while the freshman Allen (2-3) held the powerful Lynn offense scoreless over three innings of work to earn the win.

In the finale, Eckerd scored twice in the first for an early lead and went ahead again in the sixth before the Knights finally exploded for three runs in the sixth and five in the seventh.

The turning point came during the three-run sixth.  With two outs and the bases loaded, the Tritons appeared to be on the verge of escaping the inning but a throwing error emptied the bases and resulted in a hard-luck loss for Luis Duran (0-1), who only allowed one hit through 1-2/3 innings.

Trailing 10-3 heading into the ninth, the Tritons managed to push two runs across on RBIs by Cochrane and Justin Glover but Daniel Nuzzi stopped the rally short in earning a three-inning save.

Eckerd out-hit Lynn in the final game, 10-7, but issued 11 free passes.

Cochrane and Garrett Hiott both had three hits in the opener while Tom Buonopane and Mitch Calandra had three in the finale.

The Tritons return to the field on Thursday at 6:00 PM when they open a three-game series with Saint Leo at the Turley Athletic Complex.