UWA baseball drops series to Rollins
Published 3:06 pm Sunday, February 24, 2013
WINTER PARK, Fla. – Rollins College scored six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to defeat West Alabama 6-3 on Sunday.
“I thought we played well,” said UWA head coach Gary Rundles. “I thought they had a very good pitcher, but we battled him. We just couldn’t shut the door. We couldn’t close out the last two innings, and when you can’t do that you’re probably going to lose.”
West Alabama now falls to 4-10 on the season while the Rollins College Tars picks up its first series win this season to improve to 4-6.
Anthony Figliola picked up his second win of the season despite giving up three runs on three hits. He totaled four strikeouts through eight innings.
Nick Bolleter pitched through rain to strikeout the first six Rollins hitters. He ended six innings without allowing a hit and tallied 10 strikeouts. Bolleter now leads the Tigers with 20 strikeouts this season.
“Nick pitched well today,” Rundles said. “He had command of both sides of the plate and command of all his pitches. He located well and that’s what we expect to get out of him. He had a tough start and you have to tip your hat to a guy like that.”
Logan Colvin entered in the eighth inning and gave up the winning run to pick up his first loss of the season.
Chris Kilpatrick and Mitch Holgate scored in the top of the fourth on two Rollins errors to put the Tigers up 2-0. Mitch Holgate doubled to left centerfield in the top of the fifth inning to send Chris Kilpatrick home and put the Tigers up 3-0.
Rollins’ Steve Betcherman broke the no hitter in the bottom of the eighth inning with a base hit down the middle. Rollins continued with four more hits and six runs to grab its first lead of the day and the victory.
“I told our players that we just have to look at the things we did well and build on those,” Rundles said. “We need to concentrate on the things we need to work in practice. We now only one game left until our conference season starts and that is what we’re doing this for; to prepare for conference.”
West Alabama has only one more non-conference game before heading into Gulf South Conference action. The Tigers will travel to Hattiesburg, Miss. to take on William Carey on Feb. 27. The first pitch is set for 4:00 p.m.