Baseball Starts Eckerd Series on the Right Foot

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—The Barry baseball team continued their undefeated conference run with a 2-0 win over Eckerd on Friday.

Barry ace Manny Rodriguez tossed seven innings with nine strikeouts, five hits, three walks and no runs. Matt Petty went 2-4 and accounted for every Buccaneer run with a run scored and an RBI. Chris Leon also posted multiple hits in the game.

The Bucs started the scoring in the second inning when Petty led off the inning with a single to right field. Evan Ashley then singled through the right side to put runners on first and second with one out. Lyndon Coleman grounded to the Eckerd third baseman who tossed to second to retire Ashley. Eckerd second baseman Stephen Pelc’s errant throw then scored Petty to give Barry an early 1-0 lead.

Petty added an insurance run for Barry the next inning. After Chris Leon singled to center field, James Young earned a free pass on a hit by pitch. With two outs, Petty looped a single to center to score Leon and capture a 2-0 advantage.

Rodriguez found himself in a jam in the seventh but with some help from his catcher, Leon, worked through unscathed. The first two batter of the inning posted singles on Rodriguez in the seventh to put runners on first and second with no outs. Aaron Shapiro tried to swipe third on a ball in the dirt but Leon pounced on it a rifled to Young with a perfect throw to retire Shapiro. Rodriguez fanned the next two batter to end the inning.

The game boasted two solid performances from the mound for both teams. To counter Rodriguez’s nice outing, Eckerd ace, Joey Cuda tossed the complete game struck out 12 Buccaneers and allowed only seven hits.

T.J. Mullins came in in relief of Rodriguez to start the eighth. Mullins struck out two and shut out Eckerd in both frames to earn his second save of the season.

Barry continues the three game series against the Triton with a double header tomorrow starting at 1:00 p.m. with live coverage starting at 12:30 on the Buccaneer Broadcasting Network.

Barry 2, Eckerd College 0
(Mar 18, 2011 at St. Petersburg, Fla.)
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Barry......................... 011 000 000 - 2 7 0 (15-8, 4-0 SSC)
Eckerd College...... 000 000 000 - 0 7 2 (10-7, 0-1 SSC)
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Pitchers: Barry - Manny Rodriguez; T.J. Mullins(8) and Chris Leon. Eckerd College - Cuda and
Shapiro.
Win-Manny Rodriguez(4-2) Save-T.J. Mullins(2) Loss-Cuda(3-1) T-2:34 A-122
Game: BB0318