The Florida Tech baseball team opened a three-game series against visiting Spring Hill on Saturday and did so in impressive fashion. The Panthers swept the Badgers in a doubleheader winning 13-3 in game one and 8-1 in game two.
Game one was shortened to seven innings after FIT scored three runs in the bottom of the frame to expand their lead to 10. Ty Cohen (3-1) got the win in game one, throwing a complete-game and allowing three runs on seven hits. He walked one and struck out 13, throwing 106 pitches.
Florida Tech pounded out 14 hits to go with the 13 runs. Daniel Szpik, Zac Orchard, Raul Quintero, Kevin Capella, and Jakob Newton all had two hits each.
Spring Hill got on the board in the top of the first. After Cohen struck out the first two, Brennan Fontenot singled. He moved to third on a Daniel Rodriguez single and scored on a wild pitch.
The Panthers jumped on Spring Hill starter Lucas Kunkel in the bottom of the second, scoring twice. After Kunkel walked two and allowed a single to Capella, Rodnie Bernard lashed a single into left, making it 2-1.
Szpik got the third started with a double and went to third on an error. Jacob Buser‘s sac fly made it 3-1. An RBI single by Orchard made it 4-1 After Capella walked to load the bases, Newton’s RBI groundout completed the scoring in a three-run frame.
A throwing error led to the first run of a three-run fourth. Buser followed with a double to left-center, making it 8-1. The Panthers came up empty in the fifth but would plate two more in the sixth.
Orchard and Quintero would hit back-to-back singles to start the inning and they would both come home one out later, on a double by Newton, making it 10-2. The final runs of the game came on a bases-clearing triple by Newton in the bottom of the seventh.
For more info: Florida Tech @ Spring Hill Box Score (Game 1)
Florida Tech (9-12) got another impressive pitching performance in game two by starter Sam Crocker (1-0). He went five innings, allowing just four hits and one run. He struck out two and walked one, throwing 64 pitches.
Badgers starter Jonathan Williams (0-3) ran into trouble immediately. He walked James Gronberg to start the bottom of the first and Szpik made him pay, sending the first pitch he saw over the wall in left-center. Ryan Sinzenich singled and later scored on a Buser double, giving the home team a quick 3-0 lead.
The Panthers would add a run in the second on an RBI single from Szpik, allowing Pierson Reynolds to score the fourth Panthers run. He singled earlier in the inning. FIT would make it 5-0 with another single run in the third, with Capella scoring on the second wild pitch of the inning.
After being held off the board in the fourth, the Panthers would score twice in the fifth. Capella and Newton hit back-to-back singles to start the inning, ending the day for Williams. Grant Schroeder came in and gave up an RBI sac fly to Reynolds and an RBI single to Gronberg, making it 7-0.
Spring Hill (3-12) finally got on the board in the sixth inning. After Crocker hit Fontenot, he was lifted in favor of Rhett Willis. He gave up a single to Rodriguez and Luke Wall’s RBI single later in the inning made it 7-1.
The final Florida Tech run came in the bottom of the inning when Capella hit into a double play.
For more info: Spring Hill @ Florida Tech Box Score (Game 2)
Szpik ended the day 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Sinzenich and Capella each had two hits, as the Panthers had 12 in this game and 26 for the day.
The Panthers have now won four in a row and will look for the series sweep on Sunday when the series wraps up with a noon contest.