Ocelots Sweep Twin-Bill To Earn First Two Wins Of The Season

LAKELAND, Fl - The 2024 Schoolcraft Ocelots baseball team kicked off their spring trip with a DH against an Alexandria Technical and Community College team who was receiving votes in the pre-season NJCAA D3 poll.

Game 1- Alexandria would score an unearned run in the 1^st inning before adding another run in the 3^rd inning to start the game with a 2-0 lead. The Ocelot bats would show up in the bottom half of the 3^rd inning when an Andrew Thorning single would plate Barrett Barker, who reached on an HBP, for the 1^st Schoolcraft run of the game. Following the RBI by Thorning would be Owen Elsey plating Sawyer Pace, who reached on an error, and Bryan Tuttle hitting an opposite field double scoring Elsey from 1^st base. Alexandria would score a run in each the 4^th and 5^th innings to take a 4-3 lead before Zach Perpich would score Bryan Tuttle on a sac fly to tie the ballgame. The game would remain tied heading into extra innings but would not remain tied for long. Dominic Westfall would have a pinch-hit opportunity with the winning run, Sauer, on 3^rd base.  Westfall would cash in with an opposite field single to earn Schoolcraft their 1^st win on the young season.

Earning the win on the mound for Schoolcraft was Connor Bucher who would throw 1 inning. Austin Smolenski got the start on the bump for the Ocelots going 3.2 IP with 3 strikeouts and giving up 3 earned runs.

Game 2- Things would go a little more smoothly for the Ocelots in game 2 of the doubleheader. Once again, Alexandria would score 1^st in the game but the Legends lead would not last long. Schoolcraft would score in each of the 5-middle innings on their way to 8 runs as a team. Schoolcraft would have 10 hits as a team, led by Bryan Tuttle and Dominic Westfall with 2 each. Other Ocelots with hits would be Owen Elsey (1), Miguel Hinojosa (1) , Tyler Allos (1), and Mason Malysz (1). Malysz would lead the team with 4 RBIs in the game. Allos and Tuttle would each also cash in on 1 RBI for the game. Philip Miller would get the start, and the win, throwing 4 innings, giving up only 2 hits, 1 earned run and striking out 5 hitters. Abel Gutierrez would come out of the bullpen to close the game out with 3 innings, 2 strikeouts and 0 earned runs.

Schoolcraft returns to the diamond tomorrow at 3:00 PM and 5:15 PM as they square off against a Region 12 opponent in Bryant and Stratton (OH). A livestream can be found on the RussMatt baseball website. There are also live stats available on the Schoolcraft College Baseball GameChanger.