Bradenton, Fla - The SCF baseball team (4-5) were able to pull themselves together and get their first home win at Wynn Field as they defeated Pasco-Hernando State (3-5) 11-5.
"It's nice that we got the win at home," said head coach Tim Hill II. "When you're around good teams, those are hard to beat at their home park, so I was expecting to have this conversation Monday against Santa Fe, but we didn't play very well that night, but today was a new day and that's what is great about baseball. You don't have to wait so long before you get another crack at it."
"It felt great," said sophomore Kevin Karstetter. "I thought we played well as a team offensively. We strung together some timely hits and we swung the bat really. Our pitchers also did a good job of keeping us in the game."
"I thought we played really well today after coming off the loss in our home opener," said sophomore Harrison Long. "It was good to see the guys come back together and I thought we were good offensively with good pitching. We did struggle a little bit defensively, but we'll clean it up once we start clicking again and we'll be a really good team."
"Overall, our pitching came out really well and Christian Gordon came out good and threw well for us," said sophomore Kyle Harbison. "I love being back with the boys when they do good on the mound and it fires me up when Nick (Gottilla) and Mikey (Ojeda) came in and dominated. I couldn't complain on that."
Hill sent sophomore Christian Gordon to the mound, while Pasco head coach Lyndon Coleman sent redshirt freshman Cameron Kenny to counter.
The first two innings were scoreless for both teams and it included a big defensive double play made by sophomore Ben Gilbert in the first and Harbison catching a runner trying to steal to end the second.
In the bottom of the third, the Manatees would get in the run column first beginning with a one out single by Harbison. After Gilbert drew a walk, Karstetter would bring in Harbison with a single before sophomore Owen Ayers drew a walk to load the bases for Long. On a full count, Long would send a double to right to bring in Gilbert and Karstetter to make it 3-0 SCF.
"They were throwing me a lot of off speed pitches and when it was a full count, I was finding anything I could, so I saw a fastball and stayed with my approach and it got us on the board."
At the top of the fourth, the Bobcats would get their first run on the board as redshirt freshman Sean Sullivan would hit into a fielder's choice, but the Manatees would respond back in the bottom half after freshman Lucas Ismali was hit by a pitch before advancing to second on poor fielding and scoring on an RBI groundout by Harbison to make it 4-1 SCF.
At the top of the fifth, Hill would pull Gordon and send sophomore Nick Gottilla to the mound for a successful inning. In the bottom half, the Manatees would add on more to their lead. After Karstetter lead the inning off with a double before Ayers drew a walk, Coleman would pull Kenny and send freshman Cameron Lee to the mound for relief. Following the pitching change, Long would single to load the bases for sophomore Brandon Fields. On a 0-2 count, Fields would send a sacrifice fly to bring in Karstetter and move Ayers in scoring position. Freshman Tayden Hall would then send a sacrifice fly of his own and bring in Ayers to make it 6-1 SCF.
The Bobcats would score two at the top of the sixth after a Manatees fielding error to make it 6-3 still in SCF's favor. The Manatees however would respond back in the bottom half of the inning. After a lead-off double by sophomore Jake Jackson, Harbison would send a double of his own and bring in Jackson before Karstetter brought in Harbison with a double to make it 8-3 SCF.
The Bobcats would score a run from an RBI groundout by freshman Chay Yeager at the top of the seventh, but the Manatees would respond back in the bottom half. After a one-out double by Hall and Ismali getting hit by a pitch, Coleman would pull Lee and send sophomore Joel Rodriguez to the mound before Jackson drawing a walk to load the bases for Harbison as he would get hit by a pitch and bring in Hall. Following Gilbert striking out, Karstetter would single and bring in Ismali for a 10-3 lead.
Hill would make another pitching change as he would send freshman Michael Ojeda to the mound at the top of the eighth. The Bobcats would score their next run on an RBI single by sophomore Brandon Lawrence.
The Manatees would score their final run of the game as Hall would bring in Fields with an RBI groundout to make it 11-5 SCF. Ojeda would get one more push at the top of the ninth and get the final frame for the win at home.
Gordon would be credited with a no-decision after giving up one run on two hits with three walks and four strikeouts in four innings. Gottilla would get the win after giving up three runs (one earned) on four hits with two walks and two strikeouts in three innings of relief, while Ojeda gave up one run on four hits with five strikeouts in two innings of relief.
Kenny would be credited with the loss after giving up six runs on four hits with five walks and four strikeouts in four innings. Lee would give up four runs on five hits with one walk and three strikeouts in two and a third of relief, while Rodrigues gave up two runs on two hits with two strikeouts in one and two-thirds.
Karstetter would finish the game 4-for-4 with three RBI and two runs.
"I thought I was seeing the ball well," said Karstetter on his game. "I tried to take my best swing and put it in the at-bat. I felt like I did well."
"Kevin has been swinging the bat really well all year," said Hill on Karstetter. "We have a lot of guys that have been better than they have been before. They just have to keep swinging. We did also have some good backside hits from him as well."
Long and Harbison would each finish with two hits. Long (2-for-5) added two RBI, while Harbison (2-for-3) added three RBI and two runs.
"For my approach, I was looking for a fastball over the plate and he gave it to me in the first and third at-bats where he left it open for me and I ambushed the fastball and got the double off of it," said Harbison on his game.
Fields (1-for-4, one RBI), Hall (1-for-4, two RBI and one run) and Jackson (1-for-3, one run and one walk) had the remaining three hits for the Manatees.
Up Next:
The Manatees remain at home as they welcome Indian River State (5-2) Friday night, February 11 at 4 pm.
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