Baseball drops tough games to end Florida Swing

Lakeland, FL- The MCLA baseball team dropped a pair of tough games as they concluded their Florida swing with losses to SUNYIT.  The Trailblazers fell 6-5 in game one while dropping game two 9-5 in eight innings.  MCLA wraps up the trip at 2-6 overall heading into their northern schedule.

In the opener, MCLA jumped out to a 3-0 lead after through three and a half innings as Garrett Alibozek had an RBI hit as did Alon Willing.  The lead was short lived however as the Wildcats took advantage of some free passes from Trailblazer starter Matt Clark and some shotty defense by the Trailblazers scoring four times in the bottom of the frame to take the lead.

Ryan Dungey had the key blow with a two run single in the inning.  SUNYIT committed three errors in the fifth to give MCLA a run tying the game at 4, before they plated two runners in the bottom of the inning to take the lead for keeps.  Jim Sass and Kevin Rowlands each had RBI's for SUNYIT.

MCLA wouldn't go quietly though mounting a seventh inning rally.  Rory Slattery led off with a double and scored on an error to bring the Trailblazers within a run.  However a key double play kept the lead out of reach giving SUNYIT the game one victory. 

Jeff Albright picked up the win striking out 7 in 6+ innings of work.  Clark went four innings for MCLA and reliever Eamonn Andre was saddled with the loss.

Game two was a pitchers duel between SUNYIT's Redmond and MCLA's Mike Mancivalano.  Each pitcher blanked the opponent for six innings until the Wildcats posted four runs off the MCLA bullpen in the seventh.

An error and a pair of walks loaded the bases with two outs for SUNYIT which promted Mike Sullivan to be summoned from the bullpen.  Rowlands came up big for the Wildcats as he drilled a two run single to break open the scoring.  The Wildcats would plate two more runs to take a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the inning needing just three outs for victory.

MCLA had other ideas though.  They once again mounted a rally scoring four times to send the game into extra innings.  Sullivan and Nate Alibozek had RBI's for MCLA bringing Ryan Ouimet to the plate and the freshman came through with a two run single to knot the game at 4.  Rory Slattery popped up with Ouimet in scoring position to end the frame.

The Wildcats wasted little time in getting some runs back though, scoring five times in the 8th all with two outs to secure the victory.  Rowlands again was right in the middle with a three run triple.

Sullivan was tagged with the loss for MCLA.

Ouimet had three hits on the afternoon for the Trailblazers.

MCLA is off until March 21st when they travel to Clark.