Lakeland, Fla. – The Aquinas baseball team continued its series of games in Florida this morning (Mar. 12) with an early game against Hastings College. The Broncos took the lead in the first inning and never let it go. Hastings won the game by a score of 12-8 while outhitting the Saints 12-7.
Aquinas now moves to 5-8 on the season while Hastings improves to 6-10 on the year.
Grant Martin started on the bump for the Saints and began the game with a lineout. The Broncos received a walk on the next at-bat and then proceeded to hit a home run to left center to take a quick 2-0 lead. Martin promptly recovered, striking out the ensuing batter and forcing a pop out for the third out.
Dane Smitz started the bottom half of the inning with a walk but was thrown out on a fielder's choice after
Luke Lacross grounded the ball to the shortstop. Martin managed to reach base with a two-out error, but a groundout from
Jake Paganelli ended the first inning with two runners left on base.
Martin was back on the mound to start the second inning and forced two quick outs after another strikeout and a flyout. With two outs, the Broncos started a bit of a rally with two consecutive singles to put runners on first and third. The Aquinas defense put the runner on first in a pickle after a pickoff attempt, but the runner on third managed to score during the rundown to give Hastings a 3-0 advantage.
Nicolas Verdugo recorded the first hit of the game for Aquinas with a one-out single up the middle of the infield. An error from the pitcher on the subsequent at-bat put Verdugo on third and
Dawson Shearer on first. An Aquinas strikeout put Smitz up to the plate with two outs and he delivered a single to score Verdugo and put AQ on the board.
Hastings scored another quick run to kick off the third inning after Mason Masur recorded his third RBI of the game. Martin only allowed that single run while recording his third strikeout of the game.
A strikeout and a double-play ended the bottom half of the inning for AQ to keep the score at 4-1 in favor of Hastings.
Evan Douglass took the mound in the top of the fourth inning and generated three outs to give Hastings its first scoreless inning. However, the Hastings pitching was phenomenal in the bottom of the fourth, forcing a one-two-three inning.
The fifth inning also remained scoreless after Douglass held the Broncos to no runs.
Drew Mitchell walked to start the bottom of the fifth inning and Smitz reached base for the third time this game with another walk to put two runners on with no outs. A sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with just one out. A strikeout on the next at-bat, followed by a flyout helped the Broncos get out of the jam and maintain their 4-1 advantage.
Hastings College finally managed to build some momentum against Douglass and scored four runs before
Kasy Shadduck took over pitching duties with one out and the bases loaded. Shadduck immediately generated a groundout, but Hastings managed to score its runner from third base for the ninth time this game. Another groundout ended the top half of the inning, but HC now held a 9-1 upper hand.
A pair of errors from Hastings helped the Saints get some offense going in the bottom half of the sixth inning. The two errors and another walk for Shearer loaded the bases with just one out. With the bases loaded, Hastings suffered a collapse in pitching. AQ put three runs across the plate after Mitchell and Smitz were both hit by pitches and Shearer helped draw a balk. Another walk, once again, loaded the bases for AQ and forced a pitching change for Hastings.
Nathan Wilcox proceeded to single down the left field line with a new pitcher on the mound to give AQ its fifth run of the inning, scoring Smitz and Mitchell. The massive ten-run inning finally ended with a strikeout, but Aquinas narrowed the deficit to just three runs again.
HC quickly put two runners on to start the seventh inning with a pair of singles. A sacrifice bunt then moved the two runners to second and third with just one out in the inning. An unfortunate error from the Saints in the outfield brought both runners past home to put Hastings ahead 11-6. The error allowed the batter to reach third and, with a sacrifice fly on the ensuing at-bat, he scored the Broncos' 12th run of the game.
Trailing by six runs, AQ managed to generate some more much-needed offense in the bottom half of the inning. A sacrifice fly from Smitz brought one runner across home plate and a groundout to third from Lacross scored Shearer to give AQ eight runs.
That run from Shearer would be the final run that either team scored for the remainder of the game. Shadduck went a perfect six-for-six on the mound over the next two innings to not allow any base runners for the Broncos.
However, despite generating a couple of hits, the Saints couldn't manage to string a late-game rally together. The game ended 12-8 in favor of the Hastings Broncos.
Smitz reached base on four of his five at-bats while recording a team-high 3 RBI. Shadduck did well in relief, allowing just two hits over 3.2 innings pitched with three strikeouts.
The Saints will be looking to snap their four-game skid tomorrow (Mar. 13) with a matchup against Northwestern at 7:00 PM.
