LAKELAND, Fla. – The Lee baseball team had a comeback fall short in game one and failed to hang on to a last-inning lead in game two in suffering a doubleheader sweep at the hands of No. 19 Florida Southern on Saturday afternoon.
The Flames (3-8) are mired in a five-game skid while the Mocs moved to a perfect 10-0 to start the 2018 season.
Lee will look to right the ship as they travel to Carson-Newman on Tuesday for an afternoon non-conference battle. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. in Jefferson City.
"We are showing ability to compete with a top tiered opponent, but we need to find ways to pull these games out. Our team is playing hard, but we are just giving away too many at bats and making mistakes in tough situations," said head coach Mark Brew. "We have one more opportunity to continue to improve before our conference opener next weekend."
GAME 1 – LEE 6 FSC 7
Despite two home runs from Dalton Ney, including a three-run blast in their ninth inning rally the Flames came up just short in their comeback attempt, falling 7-6 to Florida Southern in game one.
The Flames jumped on the board first thanks to a run-scoring single from Jordan Howard. Lee would make it 2-0 in the second as Chase Gadau connected on his second home run of the series.
The lead was short-lived however as the Mocs tied things up in the bottom of the second on a balk and RBI single from Brown.
Austin Mauer delivered a solo bomb in the third inning to put Florida Southern up for good at 3-2.
Jumpei Akanuma (1-1) battled through 5.1 innings allowing five runs on nine hits. The senior struck out six and surrendered one free pass. Wes Albert was called in relief and worked 2.2 innings giving up two runs on four hits to go along with a pair of punch outs.
Trevor Castell (3-0) started and worked through a rocky start to deliver five innings for the win. Castell gave up three runs on five hits and struck out five. Martin was sharp in his three innings as he struck out six and gave up just three walks.
Ryan Langford came on in the ninth inning and was greeted rudely by a pair of hits before giving up the 3-run homer to Ney. Leo Rodriquez came on and recorded the final two outs to earn his fifth save for the Mocs.
Omar Villamen was a perfect 4 for 4 and a tripled in a run in the fifth inning to lead the Mocs offensively.
"Akanuma gave us another competitive start and Wes Albert minimized some innings to allow us to rally late," said Brew. "We swung it really well early, but when they went to the bullpen we totally got shut down until they made another pitching change in the 9th. Dalton Ney had a big day and it was good to get some production from the bottom of the lineup."
GAME 2 – LEE 1 FSC 3 (8 innings)
Pat Morrow delivered 5.2 shutout innings for the Flames but the Mocs scratched across a run in their final at bat to force extra innings before Burgess completed the sweep of the Flames with a two-run walk-off home run in the eighth inning of Saturday's nightcap.
Morrow struck out six in settling for the no-decision. The junior walked three and scattered six hits. The junior leads the Flames with a 1.08 ERA over 16.2 innings of work so far this season.
Gadau broke a scoreless tie in the sixth inning as he launched a solo shot over the centerfield wall. The junior catcher homered in all three games of the series for Lee.
JJ Niekro matched Morrow on the bump for the home team as he tossed five shutout innings and struck out seven. Cole Crowder worked an inning in relief and gave up the homer before J.T. Hintzen (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings to allow the Mocs the opportunity for the comeback.
Joe Parete was called on for the Flames and in the sixth inning and got a strikeout to get out of jam with two runners on base. The Mocs got to Parete in the seventh to force extra innings thanks to singles by Mauer and Villamen and a sacrifice fly from Browning.
"Morrow threw a heck of a game against a really good line up. We made some big execution mistakes early that thwarted any types of rallies we could create offensively and the failure to score in in the 7th with bases loaded and 1 out turned out to be huge. It was good to see Chase Gadau going offensively, but we need more consistency throughout the lineup."
