Port Charlotte, Fla. – Keystone College stayed hot on Friday afternoon with a 7-5 victory over Nichols College in non-conference baseball action.  The Giants picked up their fifth-consecutive win to improve to 7-1 on the season while defeating the Bison (4-6) for the second time in as many days.  Keystone is also now 4-0 at the midpoint of their spring break trip through Florida and will enjoy the weekend off before returning to the diamond on Monday.
 
Keystone opened up a 5-0 lead midway through the fourth inning of Friday's contest and held off a comeback bid by the Nichols, who the Giants defeated 19-3 on Thursday.  Robbie Nardelli (Eynon, PA/Valley View) got the scoring started with an RBI triple in the top of the second inning before Chris Triano (Greenwich, CT/Rye) doubled Keystone's lead in the visitor's third with an RBI double.  The Giants tacked on three runs in the fourth inning as Louis Reyes (Port St. Lucie, FL/Treasure Coast) collected an RBI base hit before coming home along with Julian Lanfranco (Brooklyn, NY/Xaverian) on an error by the Bison on a ball of the bat of Brandon Eady (Bowie, MD/DeMatha Catholic).
 
Nichols got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning with an RBI single, but Keystone got the run back in their next at-bats when Billy Nelson (Moscow, PA/North Pocono) drove in Nate Ross (Albuquerque, NM/La Cueva) with a single.
 
The Bison rallied with three runs on five hits in the home seventh to cut their deficit to 6-4, but the Giants pushed their advantage back to three runs while Lanfranco scored on an RBI groundout by Eady in the top of the eighth.  Nichols got a run back in the bottom of the ninth inning, but Keystone was able to close to door to secure their seventh win of the spring.
 
The Giants held a 14-12 edge in hits for the game led by Ross's three hits.  Eady, Nardelli, Santana, and Lanfranco added two hits apiece for the Giants in the victory.
 
Nelson picked up his first win of the season on the mound after allowing one run on five hits and striking out four in six innings of work.  Steven Moran (Yonkers, NY/Riverside) yielded three runs on four hits before handing the ball off to Dan Maguire (Ocean Township, NJ/Ocean Township), who worked a scoreless inning with one hit against.  Hector Vargas (Corona, NY/Forest Hills) fanned two batters while giving up one hit an inning before giving way to Yeison Andujar (Carolina, PR/Programa Educativo Alcance), who notched his fourth save of the season despite allowing one run on one hit in the ninth inning.
 
Cam Cook, Matt Hardy, Nick Roy, Nick Osma, and Brendan Martin had two hits apiece to lead Nichols's offense in their second loss to the Giants in as many days.
 
Adam Rigney was charged with the loss for the Bison after surrendering six runs while striking out six in seven innings on the hill.  Tyler Crane tossed the final two innings for Nichols and gave up one run on one hit while picking up a pair of K's.
 
Keystone will return to action on Monday afternoon with a non-conference game against North Central College with the first pitch scheduled to be thrown at 12:00 p.m. in Port Charlotte.