A little worn down after playing their fourth game in three days, the No. 15 Florida Tech Panthers willed their way to a 6-4 victory over an exceptional Drury club at home Sunday. (Photo by Ryan Seeloff)
BREVARD,COUNTY, FLORIDA – A little worn down after playing their fourth game in three days, the No. 15 Florida Tech Panthers willed their way to a 6-4 victory over an exceptional Drury club at home Sunday.
A sloppy four-error defensive display was outweighed by starter Ty Cohen’s quality performance, and back-to-back eighth inning home runs from Austin Allen and Ricky Rodriguez.
Greg Berkemeier
“We pitched over a lot of mistakes today,” said head coach Greg Berkemeier.
“We didn’t play clean baseball at all, but at the end of the day we did find a way to win against a solid team. That’s a team that’s going to be very capable in their region and league. We were able to find a way to win, and that’s the most important thing. It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take the ‘W’.”
Ty Cohen
Just a freshman, Ty Cohen improved to 3-0 after tossing five innings, allowing just three hits and one earned run while striking out three.
Trailing 1-0 in the home half of the third, a Rodriguez two-run double to left keyed a four-run inning to give the Panthers a 4-1 advantage.
Uncharacteristic mistakes by the Florida Tech infield allowed Drury to plate a run, and climb back to within two in the fifth.
Still up 4-2, Allen stepped in to lead off the eighth against Drury reliever Gage Jacobs. Jacobs started Allen off with an off-speed pitch for called strike one. Going to the well one too many times, Jacobs went back to the wrinkle the very next pitch, only this time Allen disposed of it over the right-field wall for his sixth blast of the season.
Not to be undone, Rodriguez followed Allen with a big fly of his own to extend the lead to 6-2.
Rodriguez finished the afternoon 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs.
“Ricky swings the bat well,” said Berkemeier when asked about his third baseman.
“He’s been productive for us in the middle of the lineup, and has taken a lot of good swings throughout the year. He’s an integral part of our team, and he’s doing a very good job for us.”
Drury brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but closer Jerrod Leinhauser fanned Bobby Lang to wrap up win No.18 for the Panthers.
