AUBURNDALE, Fla. – Suffolk baseball jumped out to a five-run advantage early and never looked back to defeat Simpson, 10-4, Monday morning at Lake Myrtle Park at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 10 | Simpson 4
RECORDS: Suffolk (5-2) | Simpson (6-3)
HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk grabbed a 5-0 lead in the top of the second. With the bases full on a Simpson error, Alex Sorenti-Burns' single and walk by Sam Armbruster, Jack Mihalchik brought the first runs of the day in with a two-run single through the right side. Two batters later, a fielder's choice when Garret Roberts put the ball in play allowed Armbruster to score before a fielding mishap by the Storm's second baseman on Jonny Gilbride's contact let two Rams come in.
Simpson got two runs back in the home half of the inning when Zach Fuller doubled to left field.
The Rams responded with one run of their own in the third. Sorenti-Burns knocked a one-out double to right field, took second on a failed pick off overthrow by Simpson pitcher Mitchell Roeder and strutted in thanks to Mihalcik's single, his second of the day.
In the fourth, the Storm restored the three-run gap. An extra base factored into the scoring again as Nate Cagley led off with a triple to center and scored on Kasey Carter's single to left to trim Suffolk's lead to 6-3.
A sac fly by Harry Painter in the seventh pushed the gap to four, 7-3. The junior plated Roberts, who started the inning with a full-count walk.
The Storm used a sac fly of its own in the bottom of the eighth to trim the margin back to three.
Insurance came for the blue-and-gold in the ninth. Walks sandwiched around a hit by pitch filled the bags in time for Painter's base hit to right field. A bases loaded walk by Sorenti-Burns scored the second run of the frame and forced Simpson to make a change on the hill.
Alex Foster came in and shoved for the Storm with back-to-back backwards Ks. Christopher White worked a full count walk to add to the damage and Damage was down though and Suffolk took a 10-4 advantage into the bottom of the night.
Simpson managed to get two runners on in the bottom of the ninth on a one-out single by Joel Sampson and a two-out walk from Will Carlock, but the scoring did not come as the blue-and-gold's defense backed up TJ Dimitriou to lock up the win.
PITCHERS PICTURE
- Painter picked up the win in his first start of the season. He put together a three-run, three-hit, five-walk, six-strikeout effort in 5.0 innings.
- John McDevitt compiled a one-run, two-hit, two-walk, one-punchout performance in 2.1 innings of relief.
- Dimitriou tallied 1.2 innings of scoreless relief with one hit and one walk allowed and a pair of Ks.
- Roeder took the loss after giving up six runs, two earned, on four hits and three walks with five punchouts in 4.0 frames.
- Eli Feekin logged 3.0 innigns out of the pen. His line featured one run, one hit, three walks and four strikeouts.
- Jack Shaffer (3 R, 3 BB, 1 H) and Alex Foster (1 BB, 3 Ks) worked 1.0 inning each for the Storm.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- Sorenti-Burns and Mihalchik both went 2-for-4 at the plate. The former had one double, two runs, one RBI and one walk, while the latter notched three RBI, one run and one walk.
- Iorio and Painter were responsible for Suffolk's other two runs with one each.
- Iorio also walked twice and scored one run.
- Painter brought in two runs, had a sac fly and scored one run himself.
- White registered two walks, one RBI and one run.
NOTEWORTHY
- Suffolk and Simpson tangled for the first time.
- Sorenti-Burns tallied a career-high two hits and brought in a run for the first time as a Ram. He has hit a double in back-to-back games.
- Mihalchik had a career-high in hits (2) and RBI (3).
- White set a new career high in walks with two and tied a personal-best in RBI (1) and runs scored (1).
WHAT'S NEXT?
The Rams rest tomorrow and return to action Wednesday, March 13 against Mt. St. Joseph at 9 a.m. at Lake Myrtle Park.
