Baseball Bounces Back to Beat Lakeland

FORT MYERS, Fla. – A day after suffering their first loss of the season, the Mitchell College baseball team bounced back for a 16-4 win over Lakeland College on Saturday afternoon at the Cusic Classic.

The Mariners (8-1 overall) never trailed and pounded out 14 hits en route to the victory. Tyler Pina went 4-for-5 with a double, three RBI and two runs scored to lead the Mitchell offense. Marcus Guadarrama gave up one run in 6.0 innings of relief to secure his first career win on the mound.

Mitchell loaded the bases with one out in the third and scored the game's first runs on a two-run double by Pina, who later scored on a passed ball. Chandler Whitney added an RBI single in the frame as the Mariners went up 4-0.

Lakeland got three runs back in the home half of the third, but Mitchell loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth and went up 6-3 on a two-run single by Jack Finnegan. Kyle Hartenstein and Tristan Hurley each followed with RBI singles to extend the margin to 8-3 before the Muskies got three straight outs to end the threat.

Mitchell tacked on two runs in the sixth thanks to RBI singles by Pina and Francis Prettitore. Prettitore plated another run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly as the Mariners took a commanding 11-3 lead. Lakeland scratched across a run in the bottom of the eighth, but Mitchell sealed the win with a five-run ninth for the final margin of victory.

Guadarrama came on in relief in the fourth and closed out the game, yielding one run on six hits with a strikeout and a walk. Starting pitcher Clayton Shaw tossed 3.0 innings and struck out two.

Mitchell will close out its spring trip with a nine-inning affair against Amherst College on Monday, March 14 at 9 a.m.