3/4/23

FLORENCE, SC -- Lackawanna College was overpowered and overwhelmed in its first baseball games in nine days, as the Falcons dropped a pair of games at Florence Darlington Technical College in Florence, South Carolina by scores of 12-2 and 12-1 on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Falcons (3-3) hadn't played since a Thursday, February 23^rd doubleheader at Harford CC, and certainly looked like the team with rust to shake off, as the high-flying Stingers (18-3), ranked #9 in the latest NJCAA Division I Baseball polls, battered the Falcons early and often.
 
In game one, Flo-Dar wasted little time, getting a lead-off walk and advancing the runner all the way to third on an error and then a passed ball. A wild pitch had the Stingers up 1-0 before the first out of the bottom half of the inning. Kyle Scott (Westminster, MD) bounced back to get a pair of fly outs and strikeout, but the Falcons went down in order quickly in the top of the second, and the Stingers came back with more in the second, getting a one-out single, followed by a homerun, to take a 3-0 lead. They'd tack on another run thanks in part to two more Falcons errors, one allowing the baserunner and another resulting in that runner scoring to make it 4-0.
 
The Falcons got a run back in the top of the third when Spencer Butz (York, PA) led off with a double, followed by Ranciel Ventura (Allentown, PA) with the RBI single to make it 4-1. Ventura stole second with one out, but the Falcons stranded the runner.
 
After Scott danced around trouble in the bottom third, the Falcons got another run when the Stingers walked the bases loaded with two outs to make it 4-2, but the Falcons came up empty on the subsequent at-bat, stranding the bases loaded situation.
 
Lackawanna had a runner on first with one out, but a nifty double-play from Flo-Dar ended things in the fifth, and the Stingers tacked on eight runs in the bottom half of the inning, taking advantage of a pair of walks and a hit batsman to grab the run-rule victory in five innings at 12-2.
 
In game two, it was Lackawanna that struck first, thanks to a solo shot to left field courtesy of Michael Miller (Lafayette Hill, PA) in the top of the second inning. That would be all for offense for the Falcons, however, as Spenser Hamblen scattered four hits over four innings of work, and the Stingers offense piled up 12 runs on 12 hits to run rule the Falcons again, 12-1, in five innings.
 
Lackawanna College gets right back to it against Florence-Darlington again tomorrow, Sunday March 5^th, with a doubleheader starting at 12:00pm ET in Florence, SC.