The Florida Tech Panthers opened their baseball season with a 7-2 loss to Rollins at Andy Seminick-Les Hall Field on Wednesday night.

Boris Villa (0-1) got the opening night start and pitched 3.1 innings, allowing five runs on five hits and striking out five. All of the runs on Villa’s ledger were earned. He threw 62 pitches, 46 were strikes.

The Panthers managed just four hits, two from Hayden Kimball. Brett Parrish and Sam Schner had one hit each. 

Nick Santucci got the Tars going in the top of the first with a walk and a steal of second. A throwing error got him to third and he came home on a Chase Achuff single.

Florida Tech answered with two runs in the bottom of the second against Rollins starter Jaylyn Whitehead. Parrish singled and Dylan Owens reached on an error. Both men moved up on an error. An RBI groundout by Alec Eldridge. Kimball would then single home the second run and the Panthers took a 2-1 lead.

That score held until Rollins took the lead for good with a four-run fourth inning. They sent eight men to the plate in the frame with the big blow being a two-run single by Tim Mira, giving the visitors a 5-2 lead. That hit came off of Panthers reliever Daniel Vassallo but the runs were charged to Villa.

Meanwhile, Rollins pitchers retired 17 straight after the Kimball single in the second. Rollins added two more runs in the eighth, going up 7-2. 

Kimball broke the Panthers’ hitless streak in the bottom of the eighth, but the final two innings did not produce a run for Florida Tech.

For more info: Rollins @ Florida Tech Box Score

The Panthers season-opening 12-game homestand continues Friday against Tuskegee. First pitch is set for 6:00 p.m.