Lynn University Baseball vs Florida Tech March 18, 2006 Boca Raton Campus

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Another ninth inning comeback helped the Lynn University baseball team to a sweep over Florida Tech on Saturday afternoon. The Fighting Knights won 6-5 in the bottom of the ninth in game one and 11-2 in game two. Austin Johnson picked up his first career win and Nicolas Boisvert and Ricky Gerena led an offensive attack that averaged over eight runs per game over the three game series. Lynn has won seven consecutive to improve to 20-6 overall and 5-1 in the Sunshine State Conference. “This was a very important weekend for us and this team rose to the challenge,” said head coach Rudy Garbalosa. “We had outstanding pitching in both games; we battled back offensively in game one and displayed good hitting in game two. I thought AJ [Austin Johnson] allowed our hitters to gets us back into game one and Lonnie Patterson displayed good control of his stuff.” Down 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth, Jason TenEyck picked a great time to hit his first home run of his career. The freshman outfielder smashed a shot off reliever Brett Backman off the scoreboard in right field to tie the game. Boisvert drove in the winning run in the final inning with a single through the right side. Gerena slid under the tag at home plate to win it for the Blue and White. Florida Tech (18-9, 3-3), which came into the series with a 10 game winning streak and leaves with a three game losing streak, started the scoring in the top of the first with a RBI single by Eammon Powers. Lynn responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning. Jimmy Bacon drove in Brandon Mann with a single through the middle to tie the game at 1-1. Two errors in the fourth led to four runs and a 5-1 Panther lead but the Knights chipped away at the deficit from the fifth inning on. Ricky Davis scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to three to start the rally. LU then chased away starter Jay Crouse in the sixth with the bases loaded. Davis took the first pitch he saw from reliever Brett Backman and lined it into center field for a sacrifice fly, scoring Gerena. TenEyck recorded the first of his two big hits with a single to score Boisvert. Johnson entered the game in the seventh inning tossed 2.2 innings of scoreless ball, allowing only one hit and striking out four batters. Chris Snow, making his third appearance of the year pitched three innings allowing two unearned runs and striking out three. Cedric Bennett started the game and allowed three runs, two earned, with two k’s. The Fighting Knight offense picked up where it left off in game two, jumping out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning. Felix Martinez drove in Boisvert, stole his 18th consecutive base on a double-steal with Bacon and scored on Gerena’s single through the left side of the infield. Lynn scored seven more runs through the fourth inning. Boisvert drove in two with a triple in the second and scored on a single by Bacon. Gerena drove in his third run of the game with a single off reliever Justin Arsenault. Davis hit his second homerun of the year in the third and TenEyck drove in two more in the fourth to make it 10-1. Alberto Destrade drove in the Knights final run in the sixth with a sac fly to score Harrison Lam. Lonnie Patterson went five innings, allowed six hits, one unearned run and struck out two batters. Nick Brown and Craig Sheets pitched the final two innings. Boisvert and Gerena combined to go 14-for-24 (.583) with eight runs, seven RBI and a stolen base in the three game series. Brandon Mann extended his hitting streak to nine games.