The Dominican University baseball team combined hot bats with solid pitching to slug their way to a 15-5 win over the Thiel College Tomcats on Tuesday morning at Terry Park in Fort Myers, Florida. The Stars banged out 14 hits and scored ten runs in the middle innings, including a six-run fourth, to move to 2-2 on the Stars' spring trip and 2-5 overall.
Senior
Dan Supple picked up the win on the mound, tossing six innings to pick up his first win of the season. Supple scattered nine hits and two walks, surrendering three runs, while striking out three.
Royce Salay then tossed the final 1.2 innings, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out two to seal the win.
"We are starting to turn a corner," commented Steve Hardman, the Stars' head coach, following the win. "We are just now hitting our stride and playing better baseball. Our goal is to come out of trip above .500 and we've put ourselves in position to be able to do that by playing a better, more complete game."
Trailing 2-1 after three innings, Dominican put up six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. After RBI singles by
Mike Buckley,
KJ Wilk and
Colin Janison,
Mike Piotrowski doubled down the left field line to score Janison and Wilk and give the Stars a 7-2 lead after four.
After a sacrifice fly for the Stars in the fifth and a solo home run for the Tomcats in the top of the sixth, Dominican put the game out of reach in the bottom of the sixth with three more runs.
Frankie Sessa and Buckley each picked up an RBI in the inning while another run crossed on a passed ball.
The Tomcats got back two runs in the eighth to pull within 12-5 but
Joe Kukla roped a two-run double in the bottom of inning to extend the lead back to nine before the Stars scored the game's final run on a Tomcats error, the third of the game for Thiel.
Sessa, Janison and Buckley led the way at the plate, collecting three hits apiece. Sessa finished the day 3-for-3 with a walk and a double while driving in a run. Buckley went 3-for-4 with two runs batted in while Janison knocked in three runs, going 3-for-5.
After a day off on Wednesday, the Stars return to Terry Park on Thursday, taking on the Swarthmore College Garnet at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time.