Photo: Boris Villa// Credit: Florida Tech Athletics
The Florida Tech Panthers traveled to Winter Park on Thursday and got an important win over the Rollins College Tars. Paul Castillo had a solo home run in the fourth, and Hayden Kimball had a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh, to propel the Panthers to a 4-1 victory.
If you didn’t know better you would think you were watching the Tampa Bay Rays play instead of Rollins, as the Tars used 10 pitchers in the contest. On the flip side, Florida Tech got six innings out of Boris Villa, who scattered five hits.
Matt DiNenna was effective in his 2.2 innings of work but did walk three. Alex Carpenter had to come in and get the final out of the game, earning his fifth save.
Rodnie Bernard doubled in the first inning but the Panthers came up empty. Bernard had two of the five Panther hits. The game remained scoreless until the fourth inning when Castillo launched one over the wall, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
The Tars (9-8, 9-7 SSC) got one back in the bottom of the fifth when Villa walked Tyler Colson and Luke Reidy chased him home with an RBI single. A Balk and a wild pitch got Reidy to third, but Villa got a strikeout to end the inning.
The Panthers (10-10, 9-9) took the lead in the top of the seventh. Brett Parrish drew a walk to start the inning and stole second. He would go to third on a wild pitch and eventually score on Kimball’s sac fly.
DiNenna would relieve Villa in the bottom of the seventh after Boris gave the Panthers six strong innings, allowing one run and striking out five. He did issue three free passes but kept the damage to a minimum.
Florida Tech got some insurance in the eighth with Raul Quintero drawing a walk to start the inning. He would go to third on Bernard’s single. Castillo was then intentionally walked to load the bases and Parrish was then hit by a pitch, The ball got away, allowing Quintero to score with the third run. A bases-loaded walk to Alec Eldridge made the score 4-1.
The Tars made some noise in the bottom of the ninth thanks to two walks by DiNenna and one by Carpenter when he came in in relief. He would eventually get Jack Gonzalez to bounce back to the mound and he threw to first for the final out.
For more info: Florida Tech @ Rollins Box Score
After being postponed on Wednesday night in Melbourne, these two teams will make that game up as part of a doubleheader tomorrow (Friday), beginning at 2:00 p.m. at Seminick-Hall Field.