Baseball: Florida Southern sweeps twinbill from UMO

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on February 21, 2016 12:06 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Embarrassing.

That was the description given by University of Mount Olive head baseball coach Carl Lancaster to remark his team's less-than-inspired effort following a 14-3 shellacking at the hands of Florida Southern College on Saturday afternoon at Scarborough Field.

A majority of the misery, unfortunately, was self-inflicted.

Errors in the field.

A lack of adjustments at the plate.

Players not running out routine pop-ups.

"Things we can control, we have to do," Lancaster said, "but we were just beaten by a superior baseball team -- in every facet of the game."

The Trojans (3-2 overall), sidelined in recent weeks by erratic weather, never appeared particularly focused during the early innings of the afternoon's opening contest.

And Florida Southern proved opportunistic.

The trio of Logan Browning, Jason Sierra and Dominic Brugnoni touched Trojan lefty Bruce Zimmerman early and often, pounding out a home run and four extra-base hits during the opener.

Of his junior, Lancaster said, "He wasn't good today like he's been... got himself in several counts, 1-2 or 2-2, and left a ball up -- and they would just crush it."

For lack of a better phrase, it was an exercise in contact hitting.

The Moccasins notched 15 base knocks -- one away from their season high -- and provided plenty of solid defense for starter Ben Richardson, who scattered four hits over six innings to pick up his third win this season.

Junior Tyler Knowles earned the save for the Moccasins.

Game two, much like the afternoon's opener, was decided in the early going by Moccasin handywork at the plate.

Leading 1-0 in fourth inning, Moccasins first baseman Jason Sierra struck again -- this time by hammering a double off the left center-field wall, opening the door for a watershed frame.

After a throwing error by Trojan third baseman Derek Deler, freshman right-hander Josh Flott attempted an unscripted pick-off at first base -- a mistake that ultimately pushed four additional runs across the plate.

"Nerves got him," Lancaster remarked, "and he made a poor decision ... we ended up giving them four runs when they should have gotten one that inning."

At that point, the game was all but over. Two more runs in the top half of the seventh would contribute to a 7-0 Moccasin victory.

Lancaster, however, eyes what is ahead -- the series finale.

"We've got a good arm (Hutchinson) going tomorrow, and I like our chances."

First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.