LAKELAND, Fla. – No. 10 Florida Southern College scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to escape with a 3-2 victory over Young Harris College in a baseball game Friday (Feb. 3) evening at Henley Field.
The Moccasins improved to 1-0 while the Mountain Lions fell to 0-1. The two teams wrap up their three-game series with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday (Feb. 4).
With the Mountain Lions holding a 2-1 lead entering the bottom of the ninth, Florida Southern took advantage of Young Harris' fourth error of the game – a dropped fly ball by second baseman Mike Medori in shallow right field on leadoff hitter T.J. Kuban – to start the rally off Mountain Lion reliever Tyler Isbell (0-1).
Kuban was sacrificed to second on Kyle Gibbs' bunt and scored on Cory Jensen's single to right to tie the score at 2. Jensen, who moved to second on the throw, moved to third on Jimmy Correnti's ground out and scored on Colin Kish's single that just stayed fair down the third base line and into short left field.
"It was an old fashion baseball game tonight," said Young Harris head coach Rick Robinson. "Great pitching and the team that makes the fewest mistakes win. Good teams win at home when the game is close in the late innings. One of the great things about baseball is we don't have to wait until next year to play them again. We get to tee it up with them tomorrow."
Young Harris took the early lead with two runs in the top of the first. Zach Bricknell and Medori led off the game with back-to-back singles. After both runners moved up a base on Tom Valichka's ground out, Jack Morrow drove the first run on a sacrifice fly to right. David Atwood drove in Medori with a single back up the middle.
The Moccasins got a run back in the bottom half of the inning without the benefit of a hit. Kish and Mike Snyder reached base on back-to-back one-out walks. A wild pitch moved both runners up 90 feet before Kyle Jackson's ground out scored Kish.
Neither team would score again as both pitching staffs settled down. Mike Czenszak (1-0) earned the win for Florida Southern with a scoreless inning of relief.
