Mount Earns Huge Win Over Lakeland

AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Mount Saint Mary College baseball team earned its first victory in Florida, and Aidan Marshall recorded his 100th career hit.

Mount Saint Mary was still looking for their first win in Florida on the last day of the RussMatt Invitational. With two games left, the Knights had their lefty ace Peter Pappalardo on the mound against Lakeland. He would quickly go 1-2-3 to get the Mount out of the top of the 1st. The Knights would get to work with 2 outs, as Aidan Marshall, singled to get on base. Kaleb Morgan doubled right after, putting both runners in scoring position for Richard Lamping to score both runners. Pappalardo got back to work in the top of the 2nd, ending the inning with a pick off at first base, as he did not allow a hit till the 5th inning. The Knights added another run in the bottom half of the inning.

Aidan Marshall hit a leadoff double, followed by a single from Kaleb Morgan in the bottom of the 3rd. Stephen Volk would hit a sacrifice fly to bring Marshall in to extend their lead to 4-0. A couple of errors in the 4th led to a run from the Muskies to get them on the board. Lakeland would slowly crawl back into the game in the top of the 5th with an RBI single.

The Muskies tied the game up 4-4, in the 6th but the Knights got out of the inning with a 6-4-3 double play. Gregory Harrison would lead off the inning with a single, then Noah Anderson knocked in his second RBI of the game with a single to right field to take the lead back 5-4.

Michael Pisseri would relieve Pappalardo in the top of the 7th. Lakeland tied the game back up 5-5 with a sac fly, and had runners on second and third with just 1 out. Pisseri would retire the next 2 batters to get out of the inning. Nico Simou would ground out to short, but it was just enough to score Richard Lamping from third to take back the lead 6-5. Lakeland would be in a position to score with 2 runners on and no outs in the top of the 8th. Pisseri would get the Knights out of a jam, with Richard Lamping helping to throw down a runner to get out of the inning. Elijah Duprey would end the game with a double play, making a great catch in center field, then throwing the runner out at second base to help Mount Saint Mary defeat Lakeland 6-5.