The College of Central Florida traveled to Auburndale, FL on Friday and Saturday to open up the 2023 baseball season season in the JUCO Kickoff Classic at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex. The Patriots won all three games over the weekend. They won 5-3 over Florida Southwestern (Coached now by former Patriot's pitching coach, Zac Cole), 5-2 over Polk State and 17-3 over Palm Beach State.
CF 5 - FSW 3
In game one the Patriots got off to a one run deficit when former Pat Anthony Westbrook, now playing for FSW, hit a solo home run in the first inning. CF responded by scoring five runs of their own. Bradke Lohry and Thad Ector both singled to get the offense going and later in the inning John Marant singled home Ector and Carson Bayne to take the lead 2-1. Kainen Jorge followed up with his first collegiate hit sending a 3-0 pitch to deep left center field for a 3-run Home Run. James Hill shut the Bucs down on the mound for the rest of the game finishing with 4 innings pitched, striking out 7 batters and surrendering only 3 hits while walking only 1. Keller Eberly and Cam Schuelke both threw well pitching in relief for James. Eberly threw 1.2 innings, gave up only 1 hit, struck out 5 and surrendered 2 unearned runs. Schuelke earned the save going 1.1 innings striking out one batter and did not surrender any hits. Freshman Kareh Valentin and Edwin Toribio both collected their first collegiate hits with singles in the game.
CF 5 - Polk 2
In game two the Patriots got on the board in the 3rd with a Austin Eppley opposite field solo home run. Michael Guilliams later added to the lead in the 4th with an RBI ground out to second to score Kainen Jorge from third. After Polk tied it at 2, the Patriots put up 3 more runs in the 6th with an RBI single by Edwin Toribio to score John Marant and a 2 RBI single to right field from Eppley to score Toribio and Guilliams. CF starter Brian Holiday was dominant on the mound in his four innings of work. He also struck out 7 batters and gave up only 2 hits and 1 unearned run. Dooley earned the save coming in the game in the bottom of the 6th with the bases loaded and struck out three batters in a row and completed the 7th to close it out. He struck out 4 in his two innings. Isaac Sewel got the win throwing 1 inning in relief striking out 3 while surrendering 1 run.
CF 17 - Palm Beach 2
In game three on Saturday the Patriots bats came alive. They pounded 17 hits including home runs from Carson Bayne and Kainen Jorge (his 2nd of the season). Juan Correa, Edwin Toribio, Thad Ector and Kareh Valentin all had doubles in the game. Valentin went a perfect 4 for 4 with 2 doubles, 2 runs, and 6 RBI. Ector went 3 for 4 with 2 runs and 2 RBI. The Patriot's starter, Andrew Herrmann, gave them another solid performance on the mound with 7 Ks in 4 innings, only surrendering 2 runs on two hits. Austin Eppley and Hunter Pankey both threw an inning each in relief and did not allow any hits. The Patriots won on the run rule after six innings with a 17-2 score.
The Patriots next game will be on the road again on Wednesday at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, FL at 2:30 pm. The first home game for Central Florida will be on Friday at 1 pm vs South Florida State.