AUBURDALE, Florida - The Mount St. Joseph baseball team jumped ahead in a game plagued by nearly two hours of weather delays. The team scored seven runs in the first two innings of play, holding on for 13-7 victory. The win moves the Lions to 5-4 on the season.
MSJ 13 - SUNY Canton 7 | WP: D. Richter (1-0) ; LP: K. Gibson (0-1)
Mount St. Joseph sent senior
Brice McGee to the mound to start their third game on the teams spring break trip. Through the first two innings he was magnificent retiring the first six hitters of the game. He did so while throwing 17 of his first 20 pitches in the strike zone.
After McGee retired the Roo's in the top of the first the Lions, the Mount's leadoff hitter
Anton Mere reached first base on a single. Then with
Jake Lawson at the plate the game entered the first of two weather lightening delays. After 1:10 minute delay the teams returned to the field.
With Mere on first
Jake Lawson singled through the right side advancing Mere to third. After a pair of outs and a Lawson steal of second base,
Patrick Murray drilled a two-run tripled deep into the right centerfield gap.
They would add a five spot in the bottom of the second inning.
Jackson Gutzwiller led off the inning with a double to left center, advancing to third on a wild pitch.
Andrew Clements then lifted a sacrifice fly into right field.
Kevin Schaaf then singled into left, advancing to second on a balk. An out later Lawson walked,
Ryan Murray and
Carter Owen then reached after being hit by pitches.
Patrick Murray then walked giving him three RBIs in the game. Then senior
Matt Brankamp laced a two-run single back through the middle.
McGee then began to run into trouble giving up three runs in the top of the third inning. The Lions answered back for one in the bottom of the inning. Schaaf had a one-out walk, then quickly stealing second base. He would come around to score on an RBI single by Lawson.
The Roo's then got to McGee for three more in the top of the fourth inning. Before the bottom of the inning the game entered its second lightening delay, this time a 49 minute stopage. The Lions would score one in the bottom of the inning pushing the score to 9-6.
In the top of the fifth McGee gave way to sophomore
Derek Richter on the mound. He was outstanding throwing the next 4.0 innings allowing five hits, one run while striking out five. Richter earned his first win of the season in the game.
The Mount added on in the bottom of the fifth, on a solo homerun to right by
Ryan Murray. The homer was Murray's fifth on the season. They would go on to add one in the bottom of the seventh and two in the eighth.
Ryan Caulfield came on in the top of the ninth inning to finish the game off for the Lions. Caulfield allowed a leadoff single before getting a 543 double play. The final out came on a fantastic play by Owen at third base, who dove to his left before getting back to his feet and throwin across the diamond to Clements for the out.
UP NEXT:
The Lions will have their first off day of spring break tomorrow, before hitting the diamond again on Wednesday. They will play Illinois Tech on Wednesday at 1:00 PM.
