ROME, Ga. – The West Florida baseball team gave up a three run lead to fall to Alabama-Huntsville 4-3 in game one at the Gulf South Conference tournament. With the loss the Argonauts fall to 32-16 on the year and are now one loss away from being eliminated from the GSC tournament.
UWF wasted no time jumping on top of the Chargers 3-0 in the top of the first inning. Billy O'Connor (West Palm Beach, Fla./Broward College (Wellington & American Heritage HS) drove in the first run of the game on a ground ball through the right side of the infield scoring Andrew Rodriguez (Key West, Fla./Miami Dade College (Key West HS). Korey Domenick (Festus, Mo./Mineral Area (Festus HS) and Blake Barber (LaGrange, Ga./Shelton State CC (Troup HS) brought in the next two runs drawing bases loaded walks.
Argonaut hurler Josh Tanski’s (Apopka, Fla./Pensacola State College (Lake Brantley) no hit bid was broken up in the bottom of the fifth inning on a single by Justin Riddle. He later came around to score the Chargers first run of the game on a RBI ground out, cutting into UWF’s lead 3-1. UAH struck again, 3-2, in the bottom of the seventh inning on a bases loaded RBI ground out by Justin Pearson.
Bobby Parker (Tallahassee, Fla./Alabama Southern CC (Lawton Chiles HS) came on to pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning and gave up the lead, 4-3. UAH ripped back-to-back base hits to start the inning then a Riddle single to left center crossed two Charger runs. Jordan DeLorenzo (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park HS) then came on to pitch and struck out back-to-back batters to get out of the inning. The Argos put runners on first and second in the ninth inning but left them stranded, falling to UAH 4-3.
Tanksi got the start on the mound for UWF and tossed a gem. He retired seven straight batters to start the game and hurled seven innings and allowed two runs on four hits while striking out five. Parker followed on the mound and allowed two runs on three hits in 0.2 innings of work picking up the loss. UAH’s Johnny Shuttlesworth picked up the win in eight innings allowing three runs on four hits. Cody Barrett followed out of the pen and picked up the save with a shutout ninth inning.
UWF will look to bounce back in game two at the GSC tournament as they face West Alabama Saturday May 5 at 10 a.m. ET. For information on all UWF Athletics, visit www.GoArgos.com.