Auburndale, Fla. — Retreating to warmer weather in Auburndale, Fla., as snow flurries fall once again back home in Grand Rapids, Mich., the Aquinas baseball team picked up a 9-1 win over Kansas Christian on Thursday afternoon (Mar. 9) to kick off it's Florida spring break trip.
The Saints (5-4) scored six runs in the second inning to break the game open against the Falcons (8-6) at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex as part of the RussMatt Baseball Tournament.
Both teams combined for 14 hits — all singles, no extra bases hits — with AQ racked up 10 of them in the nine inning affair.
The Saints used four RBI singles in the second inning to race out to a commanding 6-0 lead.
Jake Paganelli,
Nathan Wilcox,
Dane Smitz and
Luke Lacross provided the run-scoring hits. The trio of Lacross, Smitz and Wilcox each had another base knock later in the contest to finish with multiple hits and RBIs in the game.
As for other noteworthy performances,
JD Gillies,
Nicolas Verdugo and
Dawson Shearer all registered one hit and scored a run for the Saints on Thursday.
The Falcons scored their lone run in the top of the sixth inning off an RBI single by Jesus Reyes to left field. Aquinas responded quickly with a two-run single by Lacross in the bottom half and Smitz added an RBI sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to put the final score at 9-1. Lacross finished 2-for-5 with a team-high three RBIs.
The eight-run margin of victory marked AQ's largest win so far this season.
Aquinas used four different pitchers to keep Kansas Christian in check.
Conor Gausselin went four innings to start and collected six strikeouts.
Josh Avink then stepped in and pitched three innings before turning the game over to
Caden Gregory and
Kaleb Mitchelson, who pitched shutout eighth and ninth innings, respectively.
Running rampant, the Saints stole five bases in the contest with Lacross swiping two. Kansas Christian left seven runners on base compared to AQ's five.
Aquinas continues its Florida trip with a three-game series at No. 6-ranked Webber International. The first contest will be played at 6 p.m. Friday (Mar. 10) with a doubleheader to follow on Saturday (Mar. 11) starting at noon. All games to be played at Babson Park, Fla.
The Saints are scheduled to play eight games in six days while in Florida.
