The Long Ball Helps Florida Tech Baseball Upset #7 Florida Southern in Double Header
MELBOURNE, Fla. – The Florida Tech Panthers smashed four homeruns against the #7 Moccasins of Florida Southern in two games for two come from behind
victories to win their first Sunshine State Conference Series over the Mocs under fourth year Head coach Paul Knight and Assistant Coach Greg Berkemier.
Tech’s Sam Palace
(Clarkston, Mich.), Steve
Condotta (Mississauga, Ontario), and Trevor Hearl (Cape Coral, Fla.)
each left the yard; Palace smashed a second homerun in game two as he left the ballpark in back to back games while Hearl broke the ice with his first
collegiate and season long ball. In game one, the Panthers rallied to win 8-7 while in game two came from behind to win 5-3.
In the first game of the afternoon on the Andy Seminick-Les Hall Baseball Field, the Panthers took an early 1-0 lead at the bottom of the second inning as
Danny Sutton (Land O’Lakes, Fla.) scored on a past ball. The Moc’s in the fourth would go up 4-1 with one swing of the bat with a bases clearing base hit
to center field. The Panthers would retaliate at their at bat to get within one 4-3 as Sam Palace hit is first homerun driving in Eamonn Powers (Staten
Island, NY) who reached base on an error.
The Mocs returned in the fifth scoring three runs off back to back homeruns from David Golliner and Andrew Grurka to a 7-3 lead. Again the Panthers would
strike as Brendan Twomey (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Steve Condotta hit back to back doubles with Twomey scoring on Condotta’s double.
The sixth saw no production by the Panthers but in the seventh, Trevor Hearl led the inning off with his first collegiate and season homerun. With two outs
and a runner on first, the always dangerous Steve Condotta tied the ball game up at 7-7 with his second homerun of the year and sixth career homerun
scoring Twomey.
In the eight, the Mocs threaten as they got the lead off man to third but was left stranded as the inning ended on a ground out. Tech in eight saw no
production at the plate and with Jake Koch (Orlando, Fla.) pitching his fifth inning of relief in the ninth quickly got the heart of the Mocs order out
facing three batters allowing Tech to get to bat.
Hearl led the ninth off with his second hit of the game and moved up the third from a past ball; a sacrifice bunt by Will Lanier (Jacksonville, Fla.) moved
Hearl to third as he reached safely as the Mocs pitcher bobbled the ball. Nick Brennan (Detroit, Mich.) got hit by a pitch reached first to load the bases.
With Condotta being called to the plate answered with his fourth hit of the game going four for five driving in the winning run with a base hit to right
field. Koch pitching five innings received the win taking him to an overall record 2-2 on the year.
Game two the Mocs started the scoring off in the first inning tallied up three base hits to start the game. Tech would threaten at their second turn at the
plate as Eamonn Powers hit one of his three base hits of the game going three for three to start the second inning but would left stranded on third base.
The crimson and grey would answer back as starting pitcher Jonathan Cornelius (Land O’Lakes, Fla.) started to warm up after giving up the one run in first
quickly shutting down the Mocs in the second and third. Tech in the bottom of the third would get things started with a base hit from Hearl and then back
to back walks would load the bases. With another base hit from Powers, the Panthers would take the lead 2-1 scoring Hearl and Twomey on the play.
The Mocs would tie the game up as they led the fourth inning off with back to back singles and a wild pitch scoring the tying run up from third. Both teams
in the fifth would be quickly sent up and sent down with the game knotted at two.
In the sixth, the Mocs retook the lead off a double as they totaled two more hits. Powers in the sixth continued his success with his third base hit of the
game and then a walk to JD Davidson (Naples, Fla.) would put two on with no outs. Sam Palace who had one hit in the first game with a two run homerun tied
and retook the lead for the Panthers with his second homerun of the day and only second hit on the day scoring Dane Maglich (Sarasota, Fla.) who pinch ran
for Powers and Davidson. Still in the game, Cornelius faced the top of the Mocs order getting all three of the Florida Southern batters to ground out to
end the game.
Cornelius pitched his second complete game of the year earning his fourth win taking him to a 4-1 record. Jonathon struck out two batters, gave up one
walk, allowed eight hits but got the Mocs to ground out ten times and pop out nine times for the win.
Tech was able to gather up 15 hits and score 13 runs in the two games against the Mocs as they took two out of three from the top ranked Florida Southern
Moccasins in Sunshine State Conference play. Tech now improves to 24-11 overall and 8-4 in the SSC and will next take on the Brevard County Manatees on
April 3rd starting at 7:00pm in a friendly game at the Space Coast Stadium.
Game 1
Florida Tech Baseball 2007
#7 Florida Southern at Florida Tech (Game 1)
03/31/07 at Melbourne, Fla. (Seminick-Hall Field)
Florida Southern 7 (27-7,4-4 ssc) Florida Tech 8 (23-11,7-4 ssc)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
————————————— —————————————
Tristan Rainone dh……… 4 0 1 0 Nick Brennan cf………… 4 0 0 0
Robbie Shields 2b………. 4 0 1 1 Brendan Twomey rf………. 5 2 2 0
Will Cherry rf…………. 5 0 0 0 Steve Condotta ss………. 5 1 4 4
Kyle Patrick cf………… 4 2 1 0 Eammon Powers 1b……….. 4 1 0 0
Fred Popp 1b…………… 3 1 0 0 JD Davidson 2b…………. 4 0 0 0
Brian Schultz lf……….. 2 1 2 0 Sam Palace c…………… 4 1 1 2
David Golliner c……….. 4 2 2 5 Danny Sutton 3b………… 4 1 1 0
Andrew Grutka 3b……….. 4 1 2 1 Trevor Hearl lf………… 4 2 2 1
Arden McWilliams ss…….. 1 0 0 0 Will Lanier dh…………. 3 0 0 0
Randy Cseh p…………… 0 0 0 0 Mike Piazza p………….. 0 0 0 0
Adam Baust p………….. 0 0 0 0 Jake Koch p…………… 0 0 0 0
Brett Robinson p………. 0 0 0 0
Brad Davidson p……….. 0 0 0 0
Totals………………… 31 7 9 7 Totals………………… 37 8 10 7
Score by Innings R H E
——————————————-
Florida Southern…. 000 430 000 – 7 9 3
Florida Tech…….. 010 210 301 – 8 10 2
——————————————-
Note: 1 out, 3 runners LOB when the game ended.
E – Shields(7); McWilliams(7); Davidson(5); Brennan(2); Sutton(9). LOB – Moccasins
7; Panthers 6. 2B – Twomey(7); Condotta(9). HR – Golliner(3); Grutka(3);
Condotta(2); Palace(6); Hearl(1). HBP – Shields; Brennan. SH – Popp(1); Schultz(2);
McWilliams 2(4); Lanier(2). SF – Rainone(2). SB – Patrick(4). CS – Rainone(1).
Florida Southern IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
—————————————————————————-
Randy Cseh ……………. 5.0 5 4 2 0 7 0 0 0 0 22 22 4 4
Adam Baust ……………. 2.0 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 9 3 3
Brett Robinson ………… 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 3 2 0
Brad Davidson L,3-1……. 0.1 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 3 5 0 0
Florida Tech IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
—————————————————————————-
Mike Piazza …………… 4.0 5 4 4 3 4 0 0 1 0 14 21 4 4
Jake Koch W,2-2……….. 5.0 4 3 3 1 2 0 0 0 0 17 20 3 9
HBP – by Piazza (Shields); by Davidson (Brennan). PB – Golliner 2(2).
Strikeouts – Rainone; Cherry 2; Patrick; Golliner; Grutka; Brennan 2; Twomey; Powers
2; Palace; Sutton; Hearl; Lanier. Walks – Patrick; Popp; Schultz; McWilliams.
Umpires –
Start: 12:00 pm Time: 2:28 pm Attendance: 86
Game 2
Florida Tech Baseball 2007
#7 Florida Southern at Florida Tech (Game 2)
03/31/07 at Melbourne, FL (Seminick-Hall Field)
Florida Southern 3 (27-8,4-5 SSC) Florida Tech 5 (24-11,8-4 SSC)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
————————————— —————————————
Arden McWilliams ss…….. 4 0 1 0 Nick Brennan cf………… 2 0 0 0
Derek Lokey c………….. 4 1 1 0 Brendan Twomey rf………. 2 1 0 0
Kyle Patrick cf………… 4 0 1 0 Steve Condotta ss………. 2 0 0 0
David Golliner dh………. 3 0 0 0 Eammon Powers 1b……….. 3 0 3 2
Will Cherry rf…………. 3 1 2 1 Dane Maglich pr……….. 0 1 0 0
Fred Popp 1b…………… 2 1 1 0 Michael Demma 1b………. 0 0 0 0
Brian Schultz lf……….. 3 0 2 1 JD Davidson 2b…………. 2 1 0 0
Andrew Grutka 3b……….. 3 0 0 0 Sam Palace c…………… 3 1 1 3
Robbie Shields 2b………. 3 0 0 0 Danny Sutton 3b………… 3 0 0 0
Jeremy Thorne p………… 0 0 0 0 Trevor Hearl lf………… 3 1 1 0
Will Lanier dh…………. 2 0 0 0
Jonathan Cornelius p……. 0 0 0 0
Totals………………… 29 3 8 2 Totals………………… 22 5 5 5
Score by Innings R H E
—————————————–
Florida Southern…. 100 101 0 – 3 8 0
Florida Tech…….. 002 003 X – 5 5 0
—————————————–
DP – Moccasins 1. LOB – Moccasins 6; Panthers 3. 2B – Schultz(9). HR – Palace(7). SB
– Cherry(5); Twomey(10); Hearl(8).
Florida Southern IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
—————————————————————————-
Jeremy Thorne L,4-4……. 6.0 5 5 5 4 2 1 0 0 0 22 26 4 11
Florida Tech IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
—————————————————————————-
Jonathan Cornelius W,4-1.. 7.0 8 3 3 1 2 1 0 0 0 29 30 9 10
WP – Thorne(8); Cornelius(1).
Strikeouts – Cherry; Schultz; Davidson; Palace. Walks – Popp; Brennan; Twomey;
Condotta; Davidson.
Umpires –
Start: 3:00 pm Time: 1:51 Attendance: 86
