Tars, Knights hope to save baseball seasons

The Tars have two games left to try to salvage their season before playoff time.

Last week, a season that’s gradually fallen apart reached a new low when the Tars lost their penultimate regular season series against Palm Beach Atlantic (21-28), which has more losses than any team in the 11-team Sunshine State Conference.

The Tars entered the first game with the odds favoring a shot at staying above .500 overall for the season. What happened next was a crushing 18-8 loss, second in magnitude only to the bizarre 19-18 loss they suffered at a mid-pack St. Leo in March.

That monster loss to Palm Beach Atlantic started slowly, but after a four-run second inning opened things up, the Sailfish scored in every inning onward. The Tars ruined the ERAs of only four of their pitchers over those long nine innings, with starter Brian Auerbach absorbing most of the damage with six earned runs over 2.1 innings.

The Tars, for their part, had their share of heroes. In one of the most error-plagued innings of the game, middle reliever Brandon Burgess gave up zero earned runs and struck out two. Center fielder Peter Nicoletto smashed a grand slam in the sixth inning, which was the closest the Tars ever came to coming back.

But after dropping the first two games to lose the series, the Tars did something they’ve done many times in the season: salvaged it with a wild win.

This one came from behind, though not far, after Rollins fell behind 1-0 in the first inning when Palm Beach Atlantic sandwiched a double, swiped base and a single between three outs to take the early lead. That didn’t last long as Rollins plated six runs over the next three innings to take the lead. But that lead only lasted an inning as the Sailfish tied it up at 6-6 before the Tars blasted things open in the top of the fifth inning to run away with the game.

Nicoletto nearly hit for the cycle, singling, hitting his ninth triple of the year, and crushing his 13th homerun. That netted him three RBI, the same as Mike Dolan who hit a sac fly and a single to drive in his runs.

But the 13-8 slugfest win the Tars would emerge from the series doesn’t erase another lost series. Now in their final regular season series, the Tars, with a 23-23 record and 7-14 in the Sunshine State Conference, face the University of Tampa, which is running away with the SSC at 39-7 overall and with only three losses in 21 conference games.

The last game Tampa played, they won 24-9, in a three-game series that saw Tampa cross the plate 43 times. In their last 10 games, the Spartans have averaged nearly 12 runs per game.

It’s a three-game homestand that will close out the season for the Tars, starting at 3 p.m. Thursday, followed by a doubleheader starting at noon Friday, both played at Rollins’ Alfond Stadium.

UCF

After dusting off their bats to score 20 runs in winning their first two games against Cincinnati, the Knights fell in the last of three games to drop to 24-25 overall and 8-10 in American Athletic Conference play.

But that series showed what the Knights can do when they find their swing, and at unexpected times.

In the first game of the series, the Knights struggled to plate more than three runs until the seventh inning. Then it took only three pitches to send down the first two batters. Then something happened. A single, two wild pitches, a walk, another single, another walk and a run was in and the bases were loaded. Then Sam Tolleson took a 1-1 pitch and sent it hurtling over the left field wall. With that monster blast, the Knights had the runs they’d need to take game one 8-7.

In game two, it was another ominously slow start. The Knights had scored the first run, but that was way back in the third inning when they found themselves tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the seventh. At that point, the Bearcats were battling only a game down from the American Athletic Conference lead. They needed just one win to get back to the top of the ladder as the regular season end was closing in.

The Knights, near the bottom of the AAC, were two losses away from dropping to the basement.

But in the seventh inning, the Knights’ dormant bats woke up. It started strangely, when Kam Gellinger, one swing from a strikeout, was drilled by a pitch. Then the floodgates opened.

Tolleson sacrifice bunted toward third base and everybody reached base. Another sacrifice bunt from Logan Heiser and another throwing mistake and the bases were loaded. A grounder by Matt Mika that should have ended in a double play was bobbled. Gellinger scored. The fourth straight infield hit of the inning finally produced an out at home, but on the very next pitch a passed ball let Heiser score, then a four-pitch walk let Mika score. Then Matt Diorio blasted a ball to deep center and Luke Hamblin tagged up and raced home.

In the end, the improbable four-run inning that would decide the game didn’t see a single official hit. By then the damage was done, but the Knights would take their newfound magic wands and use them to score seven runs on five very real hits in the eighth, punctuated by Austin Griffin’s 10th home run leaving the stadium via left center, and leaving the Bearcats wondering what happened.

While the fuse on that powder keg was just beginning to burn, Juan Pimentel was redeeming himself on the mound. After some unlucky starts that gave him just two wins in eight decisions, he threw an eight-inning, six-strikeout, one-run gem to collect the win and bump his record to 3-6.

The next day the Bearcats would finally grab a 4-2 win, but by then it was too late to take the series.

The Knights hosted Jacksonville on Wednesday night at press time. They have two weekends of baseball left until the AAC championship tournament. As it stands, the Knights are two losses from the bottom of the conference. Half a run above is UConn, who they face next.

The Huskies are 25-22 overall and 8-9 in the AAC. They’ve also lost four of their last five games, recovering with a 5-0 win over UMass Tuesday.

The series starts at 1 p.m. Friday, then 1 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday, all in Storrs, Conn. After that, the Knights return home for their final series against East Carolina.