Big innings give Central baseball team win in Florida
AUBURNDALE, FLORIDA — Notching a pair of six-run innings, the Central College baseball team opened its Florida trip with a 13-7 win against the College of St Scholastica (Minn.) Sunday.
Central (4-0) jumped out a 7-0 lead powered by a six-run outburst in the third frame. The Saints (0-7) rallied and tied the game in the bottom of the eighth at 7-7. The Dutch responded with another six-run tally in the top of the ninth to pick up the win.
“We’re proud of the way our guys persevered,” coach Casey Klunder said. “Things didn’t go our way there for about five innings in the middle of the game but we buckled down and got the job done when it mattered.”
Garrett Finley (senior, first baseman, DeWitt, Central DeWitt HS) powered the first six-run inning with at three-run blast.
“We chipped away several times in the third inning, but Garrett give us a big boost,” Klunder said. “He got the ball up in the air and it went over the fence. It was good to see him put an exclamation point on the inning.”
Declan O’Hare (senior, pitcher, Los Angeles, Calif., John Marshall HS) started on the mound and held the Saints scoreless through five innings, yielding two hits and two walks with eight strikeouts.
“Declan gave us a great start,” Klunder said, “He was much sharper than he was last week. He was able to keep his offspeed pitches over the plate. We just wanted to keep his pitch count down early in the week.”
Zach DeMarlie (freshman, Milan, Ill., Rock Island HS) would get the win in relief despite allowing four runs in 1.1 innings of work. Parker Jones (junior, Verona, Wis., Verona Area HS) induced a pair of fly outs to close out the game.
“Parker did a nice job to nail it down at the end,” Klunder said.
O’Hare finished the day with five RBI after he had three-run blast in the ninth inning. Finley and Colton DeRocher (junior, right fielder, Sioux City, East HS) each had three RBI. Logan McCoy (sophomore, center fielder, Galva, Alta-Aurelia HS) and Brenden Mudd (senior, catcher, Greenwood Village, Colo., Cheery Creek HS) tallied three hits apiece.
Central has a doubleheader in Auburndale against Vassar College (N.Y.) starting at 9 a.m.
“We’ve got a tough stretch to start our trip with five games against quality opponents in the first three games,” Klunder said. “We wanted to be tested down here and we’re certainly going to get that tomorrow.”
