ST. AUGUSTINE – The No. 37 (Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Preseason Poll) Flagler College Saints (1-1) dropped its home opener to the No. 7 ranked Florida Tech Panthers (3-3) 7-1 Wednesday night at Drysdale Field.
The Panthers owned a 1-0 lead after three innings of play. They tacked on two insurance runs in the fifth inning behind a two-out triple by Grant McKown.
After Florida Tech pushed across two more in the seventh on RBI singles by Ryan Sinzenich and Daniel Szpik, Flagler responded with a run in the home half.
Cole Ondrejka singled to left and the next batter,
Nick Oberg, followed with a triple to center field scoring Ondrejka.
Ondrejka and
Frankie Sagarese each had two hits during the game.
The Saints used seven pitchers in the contest and the Panthers sent eight pitchers to the mound. Florida Tech's Luke Lorah (1-0) was credited with his first win of the season after tossing two scoreless innings of work with two strikeouts.
Jordan Doyle (0-1) suffered the loss for Flagler allowing one run on two hits over and inning of work. He walked a hitter and struck out one.
The Saints will hit the road for a three-game series against No. 32 Lander in Greenwood, SC beginning Friday (Feb. 12) at 4 p.m. The club will return to St. Augustine of February 26 to take on Nova Southeastern at Drysdale Field. The first pitch of that ballgame is scheduled for 6 p.m.
