LAKELAND, Fla. – The University of West Florida baseball team took down the No. 2 seed Florida Southern in a heavy hitting 11-6 victory Friday night at Henley Field.
The Argos welcomed back Dalton Neuschwander to the mound as the starter for the night and struck out two in each of his first two innings. Dean Hotz kicked things off for West Florida with a solo homer as his first at-bat of the regional. Neuschwander struck out two more in the bottom of the third, making that nine straight batters faced for him.
Jadon Fryman drew a walk to start the fourth and he was brought in on a double by Ben Maskin that put the Argos up 2-0. The top of the fifth saw two more runs for West Florida as Tanner Taylor drew a walk and stole second to get into scoring position. Brantley Willis advanced him on a fly out but Fryman followed that with a two-out homer to left field to make it 4-0. UWF extended their lead in the top of the sixth with three runs on three hits. Dom Presto led off with a single that was followed by a double from Hotz that put them both into scoring position. Alex Urias reached on a fielder's choice that saw Presto out at home. Cade Easterbrook walked to make it bases loaded with one out for Tanner Taylor. A ground out from Taylor advanced all runners and brought in Hotz, then a bases clearing single by Brett Rowell put the Argos up by seven.
Florida Southern scored their first run in the bottom of the sixth. The top of the seventh kept the momentum going with three more runs on the board for West Florida. A pitching change by Florida Southern struck out the first two batters for UWF, but Presto reached first on the dropped third strike. Hotz connected on a ball that was easily sent over the wall and extended the lead 9-1. Another run came in for the Argos on a single by Taylor that scored Parker Tubb who pinch ran for Urias.
Neuschwander struck out four more in the next two innings to end his night of work with 13 total strikeouts. Florida Southern added another run in the bottom of the eighth. West Florida went up 11-2 in the top of the ninth before the Mocs added four runs in the bottom of the ninth, and Grant Adams finished the game on the mound.
Hotz finished the night at 3-for-5 with three runs scored and three brought in. Taylor went 2-for-3 with two walks, two RBI and one run scored. Neuschwander went for 8 innings of work, facing 31 batters and punching out 13, earning the win on the night.
With the win the Argos will face the winner of game 5 on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. ET at Henley Field.
