Brotons Extends Hitting Streak to 13 games in 9-5 Loss
March 13, 2009 | Baseball
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TAMPA- The University of South Florida baseball team dropped their opening game of the Bulls Baseball Classic 9-5 against Eastern Illinois on Friday night at Red McEwen Field.
The Bulls (7-6) led the Panthers (7-4) 3-1 heading into the fifth inning, but EIU posted four runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth. The Bulls were never able to catch up despite scoring a run in both the fifth and sixth.
"We just did not play the way we had been playing," said head coach Lelo Prado. "The two big innings really hurt us. We always talk about staying away from those type of innings. We have to be ready to go tomorrow against Oklahoma. They beat us last year."
USF starting pitcher Randy Fontanez took the loss and left the game after pitching 5.0 innings, striking out two and allowing five earned runs on nine hits. Josh Mueller picked up the victory for Eastern Illinois after pitching 6.0 innings, striking out two and allowing four earned runs on seven hits.
Junior Peter Brotons accounted for two of the Bulls' seven hits, extending his hitting streak to 13 games. He has now recorded a hit in every game that he has appeared in as a Bull.
The Panthers started the scoring in the top of the first, when Brett Nommensen ripped a double into the right field corner. After Jordan Tokarz laid down a sacrifice bunt, Jake Samuels singled off the glove of Jonathan Koscso at third to score Nommensen and give Eastern Illinois the 1-0 lead.
The Bulls answered with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the first. Mike Consolmagno and Ryan Lockwood led off the game with back-to-back walks. That brought up Koscso, who reached on a throwing error by Zach Skidmore at third to load the bases. Stephen Hunt reached on a fielder's choice, which retired Koscso, but brought home Consolmagno and tied the game at 1-1. Lockwood came around to score on a Chris Rey groundout, followed by Junior Carlin driving in Hunt to give the Bulls the 3-1 advantage after one.
Richie Derbak singled to right field to lead off the top of the second. After a wild pitch and a sacrifice bunt, Derbak scored on a suicide squeeze off the bat of Curt Restko. Fontanez then picked off his second runner of the game to limit the damage to one run.
In the bottom of the second, the starting pitchers settled down and held both offenses scoreless until the top of the fifth when the Panthers regained the lead by picking up four more runs. EIU picked up four hits in the inning including a pair of doubles from Nommensen and Jordan Kreke to go up 6-3.
The Bulls cut the lead to 6-4 in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a double down the right field line by Lockwood, who then scored on a single up the middle by Koscso.
Matt Quevedo took over in the top of the sixth for Fontanez, and Eastern Illinois countered with three runs courtesy of two errors and three hits including an RBI double by Jordan Tokarz to extend their lead to 9-4.
Carlin and Brotons each picked up their second hit of the game in the bottom of the sixth. A 15-pitch at bat by Todd Brazeal resulted in a walk and helped extend the one-run sixth for the Bulls.
Both teams remained scoreless for the final three innings, giving Eastern Illinois the 9-5 victory. The Bulls dropped to 7-6 on the season, while the Panthers improved to 7-4. USF will take on Oklahoma for their second game of the 2009 Bulls Baseball Classic Saturday at 7 p.m.
Game notes:
Starting pitcher Randy Fontanez picked off his third and fourth runners of the season. It is the second game this season that he has picked off two runners in the same game.
Todd Brazeal worked a walk in the bottom of the sixth inning in a 15-pitch at bat.
