Port Charlotte, Fla. - North Central College remained unbeaten on the season by edging Keystone College 3-2 in a tighly contested non-conference baseball game in Florida on Monday afternoon. The Cardinals improve to 8-0 on the year while the Giants fall to 7-2 overall after having their winning streak snapped at five games.
North Central took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning on a sacrifice fly, but Keystone knotted the game at one-apiece in their next at-bats as
Brandon Eady (Bowie, MD/DeMatha Catholic) came home on a sacrifice fly off the bat of
Chris Triano (Greenwich, CT/Rye).
Keystone went ahead 2-1 in the top of the fifth inning when
Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) doubled home
Joseph Santana (Union City, NJ/Juan Pablo Duarte), but the Cardinals went tied the game back up with an unearned run in the home sixth. The game remained knotted until the bottom of the eighth inning when North Central plated the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly before the Giants left the potential tying run on base in the top of the ninth inning.
Evan Blunk picked up the win for North Central after allowing two runs on six hits in five innings before turning the ball over to Brett Pyburn, who tossed three scoreless innings. Austin Polezoes closed out the win with by retiring all three batters he faced for the Cardinals, who got hits from seven different players in the victory.
Alex Herceg (Jackson, NJ/Jackson Memorial) paced Keystone offensively with three hits while Reyes, Eady, and
Billy Nelson (Moscow, PA/North Pocono) chipped in with a pair of hits each for the Giants, who held a 10-7 advantage in hits in the setback.
Felix Baez (San Juan, PR/Colegio Presbiteriano de Puerto Nuevo) yielded just one earned run on five hits to go along with six strikeouts in seven innings on the mound while
Dan Maguire (Ocean Township, NJ/Ocean Township) was charged with one run one two hits in an inning of work.
Keystone will return to action with a pair of games on Tuesday in Fort Myers, Florida. The Giants will take on Mount St. Mary College at 9:00 a.m. before meeting Saint John's University at 12:00 p.m.
