Baseball Edged by Rockford, 7-6, in Nail-Biter Tuesday Night

FORT MYERS, Fla.- The Eastern Nazarene College baseball team endured a 7-6 loss to Rockford College Tuesday evening under the lights at Terry Park hours after defeating Emerson 14-2 at McKechnie Field, the spring training home of Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates, in Bradenton, Florida 88 miles from Fort Myers.

The loss drops the Lions to 2-4 on the year. The Regents improve to 4-2 overall with the win.

Cameron Fiorentino (Uxbridge, Mass.), Jeremy Wagner (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Justin Wagner (Oklahoma City, Okla.) all collected a pair of hits in the game and drove in one RBI.

Eastern Nazarene pushed across one run in the bottom of the first as Jeremy Wagner scootered home on a passed ball.

Rockford responded with three scores in the second inning to grab a 3-1 edge. Josh Cooper trotted home as Kraemer Brandt drew a bases-loaded walk before Robert Smith lifted a sacrifice fly to right to drive in Seth Dascher. Bobby Barrera crossed the plate on a wild pitch for the Regents' third run of the frame.

The Lions cut the deficit to 3-2 with a run in the home half of the second. Jeremy Wagner sent a bounding groundball up the middle to score Riley Sullivan (Los Angeles, Calif.) from second base.

Eastern Nazarene reclaimed a one-run advantage in the third, 4-3, scoring twice. With runners on the corners, Kurt Picarelli (Montrose, N.Y.) dashed home on a wild pitch and Jake Koch (Dayton, Nev.) advanced to second. Justin Wagner drove in Koch from second as he laced an RBI double to the gap in left-centerfield.

Rockford knotted the contest at 4-4 with a run in the sixth. Cole Logemann tripled to left-center to score Brandt from first.

The Regents claimed a 6-4 lead with a pair of scores in the seventh. Nick Naber crossed the dish on a wild pitch and Cooper tagged up and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Barrera.

The Lions answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at 6-6. Koch bolted home as Justin Wagner got aboard on an error. Fiorentino leveled the score with a sacrifice fly to plate Jesus Rivera (Homestead, Fla.).

Rockford scored the go-ahead run in the top of the eighth as Logemann scored on an RBI single to center by Naber.

Joe Cardaropoli (Agawam, Mass.) struck out three batters in his first collegiate start on the mound. Rob Dukes (Spencer, Mass.) tossed 5.2 innings of relief and registered three strikeouts. Frank Fusco (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) and Brent Houle (Westfield, Mass.) each pitched one inning of relief for the Lions.

Looking ahead, the Lions will battle Lakeland March 12 in Fort Myers at the Player Development Complex.