When the Lee baseball team ponders back over contests throughout the 2018 season, a 5-3 loss to visiting West Florida will certainly be stored away in its memory bank.
 
The Flames opened an important three-game Gulf South Conference series with the Argonauts on a cold and damp Saturday afternoon at Olympic Field. Through seven innings, Lee held the upper-hand and never relinquished the lead until a couple of misplayed fly balls in the top of the eighth inning helped the Pensacola club gain the lead for the first time and salt the important victory away.
 
The win improved the ranked Argos to 24-10 overall and 14-4 in GSC play. The Flames dropped their first GSC series game over the past seven dates. They slipped to 20-17 overall and 12-7 in league play.
 
"It's a tough game to let get away when you have a lead late.  Our pitching was good enough, but our defense and hitting with runners in scoring position struggled," said a disappointed coach Mark Brew. "We also failed to execute some bunt situations that ended up hurting us." The Flames stranded 12 baserunners.
 
Lee grabbed a 1-0 advantage in the first inning when Tyler Payne and Miguel Pimentel singled. Payne took third on an error and scored on a sac fly by Spencer Mossburg.
 
The contest remained at 1-0 until the Argonauts plated a run in the top of the fifth. Robert Lopez collected a one-base hit, took second on a pick-off attempt that sailed over the first baseman's head. He took third on a sacrifice bunt by Matthew Estrada and scored on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Silverstein.
 
Lee appeared to be in good shape after tallying two runs in the sixth. Justen Freeman singled and later scored on Payne's second single of the day. Payne tallied the second run of the frame when Jordan Howard stroked a one-base hit.
 
The roof caved in on the Flames in the top of the eighth. With one out, Joey Bend doubled and scored on a two-base knock by Matt Sullivan. Lopez reached on an error that scored Sullivan to give the Argos their first lead of the game. Estrada followed with a RBI single that allowed the visitors the 5-3 margin heading into the bottom of the eighth and final inning.
 
The two-run lead was plenty good enough for West Florida reliever Avery Geyer. The hard-throwing right-hander fanned five Flames over three innings to pick up his second win of the year. Tony Kucera started and worked the first six innings. He allowed a pair of earned runs, walked four and struck out four.
 
Wes Albert started and hurled 6.1 strong innings. He surrendered six hits and only one earned run, while recording five strikeouts and issuing a free pass. Eric Freeman came on for 1.1 innings and ran into some hard luck on a couple of misplayed fly balls by his teammates. His numbers go down as three hits allowed, one earned run, a walk and a strikeout. Jay Prior recorded an excellent 1.1 innings. The right-hander gave up two hits but was in total command.
 
Payne had two hits and scored twice in the loss. Pimentel and Dalton Ney also posted a pair of hits. Mossburg and Ney picked up two-base hits, while Justen Freeman had a hit and scored Lee's other run.
 
"We just need to come out Sunday and play more aggressively and I think we will capture some of those opportunities we missed today," added coach Brew. Sunday afternoon's doubleheader is slated for a 1 p.m. first pitch.