PUNTA GORDA, Fla. – The Saint Joseph's baseball team wrapped up its opening weekend on Sunday morning, falling to Kent State, 11-3, at South County Regional Park.
HOW IT HAPPENED
• Kent State (2-1) took control early, plating two in the first and three in the second for an early 5-0 lead.
• Saint Joseph's (1-3) got one back in the top half of the third as
Brendan Hueth doubled, advanced to third on a single by
Jake Artz, and scored on a sacrifice fly by
Nate Thomas.
• The Golden Flashes tacked one on in the fourth, but the Hawks responded in the fifth. A
Matt Cuppari single and
Brian Markoski double set up a sacrifice fly by Hueth; two batters later, Thomas singled home Markoski to make it a 6-3 game.
• Unfortunately for the Hawks, Kent State would do the rest of the scoring, tacking on three runs in the sixth and two in the eighth to salt away the victory.
BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
•
Lucas Rollins took the hill for the first time since the 2017 season on Sunday, tossing four innings in a loss.Â
Jose Martinez had a strong outing in relief, working an inning and two-thirds and erasing the only base runner he allowed with a pickoff.
• Ryan Lane earned the win for KSU, allowing three runs on seven hits in five innings.
• Thomas notched a pair of runs batted in, while
James McConnon had another two-hit game.
HAWK TALK
"Just very disappointed with the way we failed to compete today," head coach
Fritz Hamburg said after the game. "My expectations for this group are significantly higher than how we performed. We harp on details daily and we were not accountable for that today. As a result, we got badly exposed. The final score was indicative of our lack of execution. Offensively, in the last 18 innings, we've had one lead-off hitter reach safely and from the mound, we've pitched ourselves into having to work out of a deficit by giving up multiple runs in the first inning in all three losses. We obviously need to tighten the screws in several areas. No quality team can afford to throw away at bats and give up runs without a much better fight."
UP NEXT
Saint Joseph's is set to take part in the Brittain Resorts Invitational in Conway and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, next weekend. THe Hawks will open up with host Coastal Carolina on Friday before meeting West Virginia on Saturday and Western Carolina on Sunday.
