“It was nice to win the series against a very good St. Pete team,” said head coach Tim Hill II. “The biggest difference from tonight compared to the first two games was we got on top early. I thought we had a chance to get more runs earlier in the game, but we had some good at-bats where we hit some balls right at people.”
Head Coach Tim Hill II sent sophomore Matt Gelorme to the mound, while SPC head coach Ryan Beckman sent sophomore Chris Brucks to counter.
At the top of the first, the Manatees would open the flood gates first. After sophomore Tucker Mitchell was hit by a pitch before freshman Jake Jackson hit a single, sophomore Jack Anderson would send a double to center and bring Mitchell and Jackson home for a 2-0 SCF lead.
At the top of the third, the Manatees extended their lead to 3-0 thanks to a RBI single by freshman Brayden Woodburn that brought in classmate Kevin Karstetter.
At the top of the fourth, the Manatees kept pushing their score up. After back-to-back singles by freshman Joel Perez and sophomore Richard Rodriguez, classmate Owen Ayers would send a hard single of his own to right and bring in Perez for a 4-0 SCF lead.
Meanwhile on the mound, Gelorme was setting his sight on his first win of the season. In the bottom half of the fourth, despite giving up a lead-off single, the product of Lakewood Ranch was able to strikeout three straight batters to get out of the inning.
While the Manatees’ bat were quite for the next two innings, Gelorme’a arm was not as he was able to fight through it with a few strikeouts.
In the bottom of the seventh, Gelorme was getting tired after over 90 pitches. After putting two runners on base with one out, Hill decided to pull him out and send freshman Eli Thurmond to the mound. While Thurmond did get into a jam with runners into a scoring, the product of Bradenton Christian was able to get the remaining two outs of the inning.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Titans would finally get their first run on the board off of a solo home run by sophomore Christian Rivera for his fourth home run of the season. While Thurmond did get into another jam with runners on the bases, he was able to seal the deal and strike out freshman Justin Turk to give the Manatees the win.
“We played one of our best games of the season tonight,” said Gelorme on the win. “Anytime the hitters can get us out to an early lead, it makes the game a lot smoother. The defense was perfect tonight and as a pitcher that’s all you can ask for.”
“It feels great to claiming the series against SPC,” said Perez. “I knew it was going to be a dog fight.”
Gelorme would earn the his first collegiate win in his career after throwing six and a third scoreless innings, giving up five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.
”This may be my first win in my collegiate career, but I don’t really look at those kinds of things,” said Gelorme on his first win. “If I go out there and do my job, then I know my team will have my back and get the win and tonight we did just that.”
I was happy to see Matt (Gelorme) throw well again,” said Hill on Gelorme’s first win. “He has pitched well for us this year and had a very good outing tonight. He was in control the whole game.”
Thurmond earned his third save of the season after throwing two and two-thirds innings of relief, giving up one run on three hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Brucks would earn the loss after giving up all four runs on 10 hits with one strikeout. He is now 1-1 on the season.
Perez lead the team in hitting as he went 3-for-4 with a run. He finished the series 6-for-10 with three RBI.
“My mindset at the plate was trying to keep it simple and battle,” said Perez on his game. “I wanted them to know that I owned the plate.”
Rodriguez (2-for-4), Ayers (2-for-5, one RBI) and Karstetter (2-for-4, one run scored) each had two hits.
“Richard and Joel gave us a spark at the bottom of our lineup,” said Hill II on Rodriguez and Perez. “Joel has been playing well the last several games and plays with a lot of energy. Richard is starting to hit the ball to the opposite field which is giving him more success.”
Anderson want the only Manatee with a multi-RBI game as he went 1-for-4 with two RBI, Jackson (1-for-5, one run) and Woodburn (1-for-3, one RBI and one walk) had the remaining two hits.
Freshman Gabriel Rincones was 3-for-4, while Rivera was 2-for-4 with the lone home run.
Notes: This was win #301 for Hill.
Other Suncoast Scores:
Polk State (18-14, 4-5 Suncoast) defeated Hillsborough (8-15, 2-7 Suncoast) 6-5 to claim the series.
#17 Florida Southwestern State (24-8, 8-1 Suncoast) defeated South Florida State College (11-19, 1-8 Suncoast) 14-12 to sweep the series.
Suncoast Standings:
1. #17 FSW (24-8, 9-1)
2. #15 SCF (22-9, 7-2)
3. SPC (15-9, 5-4)
4. Polk State (18-14, 4-5)
5. HCC (8-15, 2-7)
6. SFSC (11-19, 1-8)
Up Next:
The Manatees will be back at home for a three- game series Suncoast play as they welcome Hillsborough to Robert C. Wynn Field. All three games will be at Wynn Field Wednesday night, March 17 at 6 pm, Friday night, March 19 at 6 pm and Saturday afternoon, March 20 at 1 pm.
Sophomore Tony Rossi will pitch game one, while classmate Daniel Batcher will pitch game two and freshmen Nick Consentino pitch in game three.
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