BOX SCORE: G1 PDF | G1 HTML | G2 PDF | G2 HTMLMarch 24, 2015 MEMPHIS – The bats were alive and ready as the University of West Florida baseball team took both ends of Saturday's doubleheader against Christian Brothers in commanding fashion. West Florida now sits at 18-11 overall and 12-5 in the Gulf South Conference.
Game One: West Florida 13, Christian Brothers 1 (8) Senior catcher
Kyle Hamner delivered a career-high four RBI, as the Argonauts would go on to rout the Bucs 13-1 in game one. Four UWF players, including Hamner,
Nic Strasser,
Jean Figueroa and
Ben Emery would record three-hit performances, as the UWF bats would collect 17 as a team in the game one effort.
Walker O'Connor was called upon to start game one and tossed five strong innings, allowing just one earned run on four hits while striking out four and walking one. O'Connor earned his fifth win of the season in the effort, which puts him second on the GSC leaderboard.
Justin Ambrosino recorded his ninth RBI of the season in the top half of the first, grounding into a fielder's choice that allowed
Alex Greene to score. Hamner added an RBI double to right center in the third to give the Argonauts an early 2-0 lead.
After Christian Brothers scored a run in the third, UWF utilized a seven-run fourth inning to put the game out of reach. Greene walked with the bases loaded to score
Jimmy Redovian, right before
Nic Strasser hit a 2-RBI single to center to score
Michael Savas and Emery. Hamner recorded his second RBI of the day with a single through the left side to score Greene. Figueroa capped the inning off with his fourth home run of the year—a three run shot to centerfield—to cap the seven-run inning and give the Argonauts a 9-1 lead.
UWF would score four runs in the eighth, forcing the game to be stopped an inning early. Hamner tallied his third and fourth RBI of the day on a double to left, while Redovian and Emery each recorded RBIs to close the scoring for UWF in game one.
Anthony Mazzurco and
Gray Dorsey each saw action in relief, as Mazzurco went two innings, allowing no runs and two hits, while Dorsey allowed two hits in his one inning of action.
Strasser, Figueroa and Emery each went 3-for-5, while Hamner went 3-for-4 as the quartet combined for 12 of UWF's 17 hits. Greene went 2-for-4 with a team season-high four runs scored, while Redovian also posted a multi-hit performance with a 2-for-4 showing.
Game Two: West Florida 11, Christian Brothers 3 (7) Jean Figueroa became the first player since April 4, 2012 to record six RBI's in a game, as Blake Barber was the last UWF player to have achieved the feat, having done so against West Georgia.
Figueroa launched home runs in the first and fifth innings to be the first UWF player to record a multi-homer game in the 2016 season.
UWF would own a 5-1 lead after Figueroa's fifth inning homer and the Argonauts would continue to thrive offensively as freshman catcher
Matt Sullivan hit an RBI single in the sixth. Figueroa recorded his sixth RBI of the day later in the inning on an infield single.
In a pinch-hit situation,
Ladeavon Matthews added some insurance with a bases-loaded single to score
Robert Lopez.
Jimmy Redovian would pinch-hit for
Alex Greene in the very next at bat and converted with an RBI single to right before
Nic Strasser hit a sacrifice fly to score Sullivan. Matthews was able to scamper home on a wild pitch, providing UWF with its 11
th run of the game.
Brandon Nagem got the start for UWF and would earn the victory in his fourth straight start. Nagem would provide five innings of work, surrendering just one earned run on three hits while striking out four and walking one.
Cole Crowder and
Sean Kennedy would pitch the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, to close things out on the mound.
Colby Brown posted a 2-for-2 performance in the designated hitter role, while Strasser closed his day with another multi-hit showing after going 2-for-3. Every spot in the UWF lineup recorded at least one hit, while seven of nine spots in the lineup scored at least one run.
Notes Kyle Hamner extended his hitting streak to 15 games in game one before getting some rest in the last half of Saturday's doubleheader. Hamner's current streak is the longest by an Argonaut since 2011, as Greg Pron recorded a 16-game hitting streak during UWF's 2011 NCAA Division II National Championship season. Hamner, who is now hitting a team-best .386 on the season, is hitting .472 (25-for-53) during his 15-game hitting streak.
Hamner saw his streak of 94 consecutive plate appearances without a strikeout come to an end in in the sixth inning of game one. It was the longest active streak amongst all players in NCAA Division I, II and III at the time.
Jean Figueroa finished the day with three home runs, a double and nine RBI after going 6-for-10 on the day. Figueroa now leads the team with six home runs and 29 RBI on the season. Figueroa also leads the team with 13 multi-hit games, while being tied with
Nic Strasser for the team lead in mutli-RBI games with six.
Strasser went 5-for-8 on the day with a double and three RBI.
Jimmy Redovian had a 3-for-5 showing with 2 RBI, while
Alex Greene had a 3-for-7 day with six runs scored.
In game two, UWF recorded its fifth game of scoring at least 10 runs this season. This year's total already surpasses the 2015 team's total, as the Argonauts had four games with 10 or more runs last season.
UWF will go for the sweep tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. against the Bucs.
JT Granat is expected to start on the mound for the Argonauts.
To stay updated on the UWF baseball team, follow the team on Twitter @UWF_Baseball. For information on all UWF Athletics, visit GoArgos.com.
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