MELBOURNE, Fla. - The Eckerd baseball team took the series from the Panthers in the rubber match after falling 6-5 in the day's opener before taking the finale 7-1 on the road Saturday afternoon.
Eckerd opened the day with a four-run heater, scoring four runs in the second. EC plated one run on a balk before a single by Kyle Ericson gave the Tritons a 2-0 lead. Cole Schumaker followed up with an RBI triple for a three-run lead. Joe Wike scored on a throwing error to close the inning with a comfortable 4-0 lead.
Florida Tech began to respond with a pair of runs in the third to shorten its deficit to two. The Panthers flipped the script in the fourth inning with a four-run inning to take the lead 6-4. Tyler Cox added a run in the seventh for the Tritons to trail by one, but they could not come back, falling 6-5 in game one.
After three scoreless innings in the finale, Eckerd put up five runs in the fourth inning for a comfortable 5-0 lead. With the bases loaded, Schumaker hit an RBI single through the left-side gap to open up the scoring. Darius Bradley followed with an RBI single, extending the lead to two. Cam Collier added to the Triton lead with an RBI single up the middle, allowing three more runs for the 5-0 favor. Eckerd added another run in the seventh before the Panthers broke the scoreless streak in the eighth. In the top of the ninth, Cox stuck late once again, this time for an insurance run for the Tritons to close the game 7-1.
HOW IT ENDED
Game One
FINAL: Florida Tech 6, Eckerd 5
WP: Skarbek (1-1) LP: Rene Ramos (2-7) S: Guthrie (2)
Game Two
FINAL: Eckerd 7, Florida Tech 1
WP: Cox (1-1) LP: Anderson (1-4)
RECORDS: Eckerd 16-16 (5-10 SSC); Florida Tech 16-20 (8-10 SSC)
NOTES AND NUMBERS
- The Tritons combined for 11 hits each across the two games today. They tallied 38 hits in the series.
- Joe Wike had four hits on the day.
- Cox and Schumaker led with two RBIs on the day.
- Cox registered an RBI while also earning a win on the mound through five innings of work.
UP NEXT
Eckerd will return home for another conference series against Rollins at 5:00 PM on Friday.