MELBOURNE, Fla. – A day after the Winona State baseball team picked up its first victory, the Warriors lost a tough 7-0 game to Florida Tech Tuesday evening in Melbourne, Fla.
Winona State had a big challenge to overcome, as the Panthers were leading the nation in batting average and were fourth in the nation in runs scored. For five innings, the Warriors managed to keep that top ranked offense at bay, but couldn't contain it in the last four innings.
The Warriors challenged the Panthers early by getting runners on-base, but struggled to score those base-runners.
Winona State threatened early as Tyler Nehring recorded a two-out single and a Travis Evanson single moved Nehring to third, putting runners on the corners with two outs. However, third baseman Jesus Cazares fouled out down the third base line to end the Warrior threat.
The Warriors threatened Florida Tech again in the third inning. Mitch Hommes led off the third with a walk and moved to second on an Andrew Geislinger sacrifice bunt. With a runner at second with one out, both Nehring and Evanson grounded out consecutively to third base to end the inning.
Despite the Warriors struggles to score base runners in the first four innings, starting pitcher Chase Blazier managed to keep the Panthers red-hot offense off the scoreboard.
It wasn't until the fifth inning until either team managed a score. Florida Tech led off the bottom of the fifth with a triple and after recording a shallow flyout, the Panthers managed to score a run on a ground out to Nehring to jump out to a 1-0 lead.
It appeared as though Winona State might be able to get back into the ball game in the top of the sixth. Geislinger led off the sixth with an infield single toward the second base hole and Nehring drove a base hit to left center to put runners at first and second with no outs.
Unfortunately, the Warrior offense struggled to move the runners as Evanson grounded into a double play, moving Geislinger to third. In the next at-bat, Cazares flied out to center field to end the threat.
Despite the Warriors limiting the Panthers to just one run in the first five innings, they couldn't contain them the rest of the way. Blazier, who only gave up three hits through the first five innings, gave up a leadoff single and one at-bat later would give up another single, a hit-by-pitch to load the bases, and then a two RBI single to center to expand Florida Tech's lead to 3-0.
Mitchell Stalsberg replaced Blazier and with runners on first and third, the Panthers tallied an additional insurance run on a wild pitch to make it 4-0. After the wild pitch, Stalsberg recorded a strike out and a ground out to get out of the inning and limit any further damage.
The Warriors again tried to chip back into the lead in the top of the seventh. With Paul Mutch getting a leadoff single to start the inning, Mitch Heid drove a single to center to move Mutch to third with two outs. Again, the Warriors couldn't convert as Hommes grounded out in his at-bat to end the inning.
Florida Tech added three more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Panthers a seven run lead and put the game out of reach.
The Panthers managed to score seven runs on nine hits and an error, while the Warriors didn't score, while recording seven hits and an error.
Nehring was the only Warrior to record a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with two singles, raising his season batting average to .345.
Blazier recorded the loss for the Warriors, dropping to 0-2 on the year. Blazier gave up four runs, all earned on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts. The Warriors did get a solid 1 2/3-innings pitched out of Stalsberg, giving up no runs and no hits with a walk and four strikeouts.
With the loss, Winona State drops to 1-7 on the season and is currently 1-1 on the Florida road trip. The Warriors will look to bounce back tomorrow against another tough opponent, as they will travel to Lakeland, Fla. for a 5 p.m. matchup against Florida Southern.
