By: Joseph Watkins, sports information assistant
FORT MYERS, Fla - The Bluffton University baseball team droped a pair of games in their final day of play in the sunshine state to Florham 14-9 and 10-3, on Saturday, March 9. Bluffton falls to 5-6 on the season, while Florham improves to 2-1.
Florham would jump out to an early 5-0 in the first inning of game one. But, the Beavers would respond in the bottom half of the first. Reid Ruhl (Hamilton) would get things started by getting hit by a pitch putting him on first. Colin Gregory (Fremont/Clyde) would than double advancing Ruhl to third and putting the Beavers in much needed scoring position. A Jacob Latkofsky (Temperance, MI/Ida) double would score Ruhl and Gregory and would make the score 5-2. Latkofsky would eventually score off a double steal and would allow the Beavers to get back into striking distance with a 5-3 score after one.
Bluffton would not have another huge inning like the first until the bottom half of the sixth when they would tally four runs in the inning. Ruhl would start things off for the Beavers with two outs by singling to left field. Gregory would than follow suit and have a single of his own and now giving the Beavers hope of cutting into the Florham lead. A Latkofsky single would allow for Ruhl to score and would move Gregory within scoring distance. Junior Parker Reynolds (Avon) would double to center field allowing Gregory to score and would advance Latkofsky into scoring position. Cale Sherbourne (Johnstown/Big Walnut) would than single to center allowing Latkofsky to score and than Reynolds would score off a wild pitch to give the Beavers a big four run inning.
But Florham would have too many big run innings where it would make it tough for Bluffton to make a comback and would drop game one of the double header.
Bluffton would jump out to a 2-0 lead in game two when Latkofsky would hit a 2-run homerun to center field giving him two RBI. But, the Beavers would be held scoreless until the top half of the seventh. Bluffton would score one in that inning by way of a few hit by pitches from Florham. Florham would put it on the Beavers and would score a little bit at a time throughout and was too much for Bluffton to overcome.
Senior Brantley Curnutte (Hilliard/Davidson) would pick up the loss for Bluffton in 0.1 innings of work. He would walk two and hit one in his only inning of work.
The Beavers next game will be on Tuesday, March 12, as they will travel to Ohio Northern to take on the Polar Bears.
-BEAVERS-