Argonauts Mercy Rule Blazers 10-0 in Round Three at the GSC Tournament

May 6, 2012

Jake Stephens Hurled a Complete Game Shutout and Faced the Minimum Number of Batters

Jake Stephens faced the minimum in a complete game shutout (Photo by John Corwin)

ROME, Ga. – The West Florida baseball team mercy ruled Valdosta State 10-0 in seven innings on Sunday afternoon in round three at the Gulf South Conference tournament. Jake Stephens (Marietta, Ga./Northwest Florida State College (Lassiter HS) led the Argonauts to victory on the hill hurling a complete game shutout, the second consecutive from the UWF pitching staff, and facing the minimum number of batters, 21, to capture his fifth win of the season. With the win the Argonauts eliminate VSU from the GSC tournament and improve to 33-16 on the year.

West Florida’s offense caught fire in the top of the second inning scoring seven runs. Josh Huggins (Bay Minette, Ala./Faulkner State CC (Baldwin County HS) and Max St. Hilaire (Largo, Fla./St. John's River State College (Largo HS) started the inning off with back-to-back singles followed by a Korey Domenick (Festus, Mo./Mineral Area (Festus HS) walk loaded the bases with nobody out. Three consecutive RBI hits opened the flood gates for the Argos offensively. A couple of defensive miscues by the Blazers and two more RBI hits by UWF put the Argos on top 7-0. West Florida picked up where they left off in the top of the third inning crossing another run, 8-0, taking advantage of another Blazer error.

UWF added two more runs to their lead, 10-0, in the top of the sixth inning taking advantage of back-to-back errors by VSU to start the inning off followed by a Huggins sacrifice fly. Stephens would keep the Blazer bats silent for the remainder of the game to lead UWF to a 10-0 mercy rule victory in seven innings.

Stephens took a no hitter 4.1 innings before it was broken up on a single to center field, one of just two hits he surrendered. Stephens fanned six batters and issued just one free pass. VSU’s Nick Fogarty received the loss tossing 1.1 innings in a starters role allowing seven runs on five hits.

Offensively West Florida was led by Garret Flynn (Davie, Fla./Sagemont Upper School), Domenick and St. Hilaire. Flynn was 3-4 with two RBIs and a run, Domenick was 2-2 with a run and St. Hilaire was 2-3 with a run.

The Argonauts will play Monday May 7 at 11 a.m. ET against Delta State. To follow all of the action live visit, www.GoArgos.com.