MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – The Erskine College baseball team (3-4) defeated Barry University (1-5) by a score of 10-4 in 14 innings at Feinbloom Field on Saturday to wrap up a winning weekend against Sunshine State Conference opponents.

THE ESSENTIALS 
Conf. Carolinas Standings | Stats | Scores
Div. II Scores | Record Book | CC Digital Network
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
In the third and final game of the Erskine's second annual Florida road trip, Josean Sanchez started the afternoon with a bang, launching his second leadoff home run in the past five days to give the Fleet an early lead. Barry scored the next three runs of the game, but Wilmis Castro brought Erskine level with one swing, a two-run home run over the left field fence in the fourth inning. In the next half inning, the hosts regained the lead on a wild pitch, but the Erskine bullpen shined from then on out. Cooper Guest took over on the mound in that fifth inning and stranded the bases loaded, before blanking the Buccaneers over the next three frames with timely outs to put out any Barry threat. However, despite the brilliant work from Guest, Erskine still trailed by one heading into the ninth inning. That lead lasted all of five pitches as Jorge Pascual launched a game-tying home run to straightaway left field and the Fleet forced extra innings. The Erskine bats managed just two singles in their first four extra innings at the plate, but a combination of Brady Tucker and Dustin Scogins kept the Fleet alive. In particular, Tucker provided the heroics, inducing inning-ending double plays in the 10th and 11th innings. Finally, in the 14th inning, Ben Maskin broke the deadlock with a massive three-run home run to put the Fleet back on top. After a Christian Rivera walk, Dale Francis, Jr. became the fifth Erskine player to record a home run with a two-run blast, and then Daniel Hernandez added an RBI single for good measure as Erskine exploded six runs in the top half of the 14th. Nick Pazos relieved Scogins in the bottom half and worked around a pair of free passes to put the finishing touches on an extra-inning thriller to wrap up a successful weekend for the Fleet.

THE PLAYER
On a day where five Erskine hitters left the park, it's hard to overlook the brilliant relief effort from Cooper Guest. The senior right-hander came on in hot water in the bottom of the fifth inning and kept the Fleet within a run until Pascual's home run tied the game to force extra innings. In total, Guest registered four-and-a-third innings scoreless innings pitched and surrendered just three hits while recording three strikeouts.

WHAT'S NEXT?
Erskine stays on the road all of next week, starting with a visit to a recent national champion, Wingate University (2-4) on Tuesday at 4 p.m. The teams have split their regular-season meetings each of the past two years, and the Fleet won a 14-12 thriller at Wingate last season behind a go-ahead grand slam from Dalton Boyd and a game-winning RBI single from Tariq Bacon.

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