Baseball shuts out Florida Southern in series opener

LAKELAND, Fla. -- The Eckerd Tritons baseball team belted 15 hits and pitched its second shutout of the season on Friday, winning game one of a weekend series over the Florida Southern Mocs by a score of 10-0.

The Tritons scored in each of the first four innings, beginning with a two-spot in their opening at-bat. With two outs and nobody on, Hunter Rebhan got on base with a double before coming in to score on Kam Gelwick's RBI single. Christian Cabina drove in Gelwick during the next at-bat to give Eckerd a 2-0 lead. Starting pitcher Grady Bivens worked around a one-out triple in the bottom half to keep the team up 2-0 entering the second. 

A bases-loaded hit batter gave Eckerd its third run of the night in the second inning. The Tritons plated three more in the third, beginning with consecutive singles from Cabina and Luis Garrido. An error brought in the first run of the frame, followed by Joey Bazydlo's run-scoring single to make it a 5-0 contest. Ean Gimson capped off the three-run surge with an RBI ground-rule double.

The Tritons mirrored their third-inning production with another three in the fourth. After a walk and single put runners on second and third with two outs, the team saw three straight RBI singles to extend the advantage out to 9-0. Bazydlo and Gimson both notched their second RBI of the game in the inning, while Corey Hodierne collected one himself after driving in the ninth run.

The fifth inning featured the first scoreless frame of the game, with each team working around a runner in scoring position. A Florida Southern miscue was responsible for the 10th and final run scored of the game in the sixth as the two teams combined for just one hit through the final three innings. 

Bivens improved to 6-0 on the season after going 7.1 innings and striking out 10. Offensively, six different Tritons had multi-hit efforts. 

Games two and three will take place tomorrow.