LAKELAND, Fla.—With just one hit through four innings in Friday's game against Ottawa University, the Fire baseball team needed a spark to overcome a two-run deficit.
The spark came from the pitcher's mound when
Danny Batcher came in and struck out four of the five he faced and allowed the offense to regroup and score three in the fifth and two in the sixth for a 5-3 victory to move to 2-0.
"Batcher came out of the bullpen and changed the momentum," said coach
Adrian Dinkel. "I thought our guys did a good job competing and finding a way to stay in the game."
"I just wanted to get us out of the inning, make some good pitches and get our guys back in the dugout to score some runs," said Batcher.
The just two batters later,
Josh Smith doubled to left field to score
Cristopher Munoz who led off the inning with a walk to get the Fire on the board. Then,
Pablo Lanzarote cleared the left field wall for his first home run of the season to put the hosts on top, 3-2.
Gary Lora drove in two more with a no-doubt, two-run homer over the left field wall for a 5-2 lead in the sixth. Lora paced the offense with a pair of hits on the day.
"We needed to do a better job of making adjustments in the batter's box," said Dinkel. "I think we need to do a better job of making adjustments and finding ways to get better."
Following Batcher,
Colby Martin worked two scoreless innings with five strikeouts to the seven batters he faced and
Reece Wissinger picked up his first save of the season with a flyout, groundout, and strikeout after surrendering a solo homer.
"When Martin and Wissinger have the kind of stuff that they did today, obviously you feel like you're going to have a chance to win a lot of games and they pounded the zone and gave us that opportunity," said Dinkel.
Starting pitcher
Lex Garcia allowed just one earned run on a solo homer in the first in 4.2 innings of work and struck out five.
The teams will complete their three-game opening weekend series Saturday morning at 11 a.m.
