PENSACOLA, Fla. – UWF baseball (7-8, 1-2 GSC) made it two straight against Miles College (5-10, 0-0 SIAC) Wednesday at Jim Spooner Field. The Argos won going away, scoring a season-best 16 runs on a season-best 20 hits to win 16-0. The shutout was the first at home this season by UWF pitching and the staff's second overall in the last five games.
"Miles is a solid club," said UWF head coach Mike Jeffcoat. "They've beaten some GSC teams, and we weren't expecting these type of scores today or yesterday, but that just goes to show what type of team I think we can be. And we hope that we can carry that momentum into the Union weekend."
The Argos outscored Miles 29-1 in the two-game set. The team never trailed in the series and improved to 10-0 vs. Miles since 1991.
"We came back out today and started out the game with good pitching and defense again," said Jeffcoat. "Josh Pahlad, a true freshman, had his first start. Had it planned out where he was only going to go three innings, and he did a fine job for us. We got the offense going again, started barreling it up again."
The Argo bats were led by Nick Kerkmann and Brandon Harmon, who each finished the game with five RBIs. Matthew Jones, Jacob Silverstein and Harmon all reached base five times. Matt Sullivan finished with four hits and two runs scored. The Argos raced out to an early lead, tagging Miles starter Chris Elias (1-3) for five runs (five earned) in the first four innings and from there did not look back. Every spot in the order reached at least once.
"We've been searching for that right lineup and that right combination. The first ten games or so, our Achilles' heel was getting hits with runners in scoring position," said Jeffcoat. "We were getting enough hits, getting enough baserunners. We just weren't getting the big hits with the runners in scoring position. Now tonight and yesterday, we really swung the bats with runners in scoring position, and that's when you start tacking on more runs."
Josh Pahlad got the start for UWF and faced the minimum over his three innings. Matthew Estrada (1-1) followed in the fourth and the fifth, stranding three in scoring position and striking out three to earn his first collegiate win. Tony Kucera, Dylan Mills-Derouen, Jared Gonzalez and Avery Geyer pitched an inning apiece to cement the shutout.
The Argos will stay at Jim Spooner Field for a three-game set vs. Union (5-9, 1-2 GSC) starting at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.
"It's going to be conference, and I don't think you can take anything for granted," said Jeffcoat. "We've got to come out and play our game and worry about what we do and control the things that we can control, and hopefully we can come out on top.
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