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WINTER HAVEN, Fla.—After a 3-2 start to their Spring Break trip, Gordon baseball won two of three games on Tuesday and Wednesday to improve to 5-3 on the season. The Scots survived a late rally from SUNYIT in a 5-4 win over the Wildcats on Tuesday before splitting a doubleheader with local product Anna Maria on Wednesday afternoon.
The Fighting Scots continued their trend of fast starts by scoring two runs in the top of the first against the SUNYIT Wildcats. Sophomore Eric Walker (Danvers, Mass.) led off the game with a single to left field and stole second just a few moments later to give the Scots their first scoring threat of the day. After a wild pitch moved the Scots second baseman to third, Mark Fitzgerald (Camarillo, Calif.) reached first on a fielding error by the Wildcats shortstop, plating Walker in the process to give Gordon a 1-0 lead.
Travis Pullen (Las Vegas, Nev.) laced a single moving Fitzgerald all the way to third base. The very next batter, Jesse Amaya, grounded into a fielder's choice at second base, but Fitzgerald shot out of the gate and scored easily on the play to increase Gordon's lead to two.
The Wildcats responded in the bottom half of the inning, scoring a run due to a throwing error by Pullen at first base.
Gordon carried the one-run lead until the top of the third, where they found more success against the Wildcats' starter. Walker led off the inning with his second single of the game and then Dawson Tefft (West Granby, Conn.) launched a double into the gap in left-center to score Walker. Fitzgerald earned a no-out walk to put runners on first and second with Pullen back at the plate. The junior became the second Gordon batter to double in the inning, driving in both Tefft and Fitzgerald and opening the Scots' lead to 5-1.
SUNYIT threatened to have multi-run innings in the third, sixth and seventh innings, but the Scots held the Wildcats to a single run in each inning to record their fourth win of the season. Ryan Block (Egg Harbor Township, N.J.) picked up his first win of the season in relief, while Fitzgerald picked up his first save.
Wednesday got off to a rough start as Anna Maria College found themselves with a 5-0 lead after only three innings of play. The Amcats homered to drive in two runs in the first inning and added timely singles in the second and third inning to push their lead to five.
The Scots got one run back in the top of the fourth inning on a bases loaded fielder's choice, but the Amcats responded with two more runs in the fifth inning to take a 7-1 lead. Pullen crushed a fastball over the fence in the top of the sixth inning, but it was too late for the Scots to mount a rally. Anna Maria took the first game of the doubleheader, 10-4.
Anna Maria pulled out to the lead again in game two, with RBI singles in the first, fourth and sixth innings before the Scots could score a run. Alonzo Martinez (El Paso, Texas) became the second Scot to dig the longball with a solo shot in the bottom half of the sixth to cut the Amcats' lead to two.
Alex Smith (Wethersfield, Conn.) got his second hit of the game with the bases loaded in the sixth. Smith poked a ball through the infield to score Pullen from third base and keep the threat alive. Catcher Cody Davey (Plymouth, Mass.) played the hero role well with a hit through the right side of the infield. Davey's knock scored freshman pinch-runner Joe Olszak (Danvers, Mass.) and classmate Ryan Paulsen (Latham, N.Y.) to give Gordon their first lead of the series.
Arning picked up his third win of the season in relief with a shutdown seventh inning and Gordon improved to 5-3 to kick off their season in Florida.
Gordon was back in action on Friday morning against RPI before heading home to Massachusetts on Saturday. The Scots are back in action for their home opener with Norwich University (Vt.) on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
