Box Score
The College of Mount St. Joseph baseball team has gotten off to a successful start in 2014 Florida Spring Break play, turning in a 2-1 record over their first three games. The Mount, 2-2-1 overall this season, swept a doubleheader on Mar. 9 in Florida over Cazenovia College, 8-0 and 6-1 before losing to Albion College today, Mar. 11, 15-9. The Lions are back in action tomorrow in Winter Haven, FL, when they play a single, nine-inning game against Penn State University Abington.
The Lions got strong starting pitching efforts in their doubleheader sweep on Sunday, with Brandon Polking (Cincinnati, OH/St. Xavier) and Drew Ernst (Cincinnati, OH/Elder) combining for a three-hit shutout in the opening game. Chase Stevens (Harrison, OH/Harrison) followed that effort with a complete game of his own, tossing six innings, allowing one earned run and recording six strikeouts for the win. The Lions used five different pitchers in their setback to Albion, and have used nine different pitchers over the 23 innings played in Florida.
The Mount has gotten offensive contributions from a number of different players during their recent three-game stretch. Nick Browning (Fairifeld, OH/Hamilton Badin) has four hits in eight at-bats in the past three games while teammate Michael Leytze (Cincinnati, OH/La Salle) has gone three-for-seven with four runs scored. Ronald Cotton (Florence, KY/Boone County), who blasted a grand slam home run in the game one shutout against Cazenovia, has hit .400 in Florida, with six RBI and three runs scored.
The Lions have committed just four errors in three Florida games, and have hit .286 as a team.
