PENSACOLA, Fla. – Making the best of only three hits but getting outstanding relief work from Randall Coxwell, the Lee baseball Flames scored a 1-0 win over host and 5th-ranked West Florida on Friday evening in a key Gulf South Conference contest.
Coxwell (3-2) came on in relief of Logan Workman in the fifth inning with the bases loaded and nobody out. He quickly got a double-play ball that third baseman Miguel Pimentel fielded the hard-hit ground ball, fire home to catcher Justin Fragale who zipped a strike to first-baseman Ryan Beamish for the twin killing. Coxwell got the next hitter to pop out and end the threat.
Coxwell went the rest of the way and allowed just two hits while walking one and striking out three. In four innings, Workman surrendered just four hits but allowed four walks while fanning four.
Lee scored the winning run in the third inning when Parker Stahlman singled and the speedster scored on a double by Thomas Zazzaro in the left-centerfield gap. Pimentel had Lee's only other hit.
In the seventh, West Florida had a runner on third and two outs. Zazzaro found a way to field a bad hop and threw the Argo runner out to end the inning. Joshua Perez helped save the game in the same inning when he was backed against the right-field wall and made the grab of the ball that looked like it was leaving the park. Lee head coach Mark Brew noted that the ball would not have been out of the park but would have certainly been a double that would have tied the thrilling contest.
The Argo pitching staff got a strong effort from Daniel Floyd (5-1) who worked 7.1 innings. Kirk Maddox hurled the final 1.2 innings. Matthew Estrada had two of the Argo six hits. Adam Imwalle, Mark Farnell, Matthew Jones and Jody Bend had the other hits.
"What a great game both teams played tonight. It was a great pitching performance and defensive performances on both sides, but Coxwell was lights out and made some huge pitches," said Coach Brew. "You could see our team's belief spike after Coxwell pitched out of the bases loaded, no-out jam in the fifth. We had some huge defensive plays down the stretch from Pimentel, Zazzaro and Perez. It was a total team effort and we will need that same type of performance tomorrow to take the series."
The Flames (19-21, 9-11) will face the league-leading Argonauts (27-12, 17-5) again on Saturday afternoon. The first pitch of the doubleheader is slated for 2 p.m. (EDT).
