SAINT LEO, Fla. – Saint Leo put together one if its most complete games of the spring in a 14-1 trouncing of Warner University (15-21) on Tuesday night from Thomas B. Southard Stadium. The Lions collected 20 hits to earn the win behind a solid pitching performance from Michael Dunnigan.
Dunnigan (2-0), who was making his first career start for the Lions, tossed seven complete innings of one run baseball. The freshman right-hander allowed just four hits, struck out five, and did not surrender a walk in his time on the mound.
Offensively Saint Leo (18-9) was clicking on all cylinders—scoring in six of the eight frames including a four-spot in the sixth inning. Bobby Twitty continued to impress as he tallied three hits and a run on the evening. Also with three hits, including a mammoth homerun was senior first baseman Michael Revell. Nick Gill, Daniel Torres, Frank Rawdow, and Taylor Perez all recorded two hits in part of the team's season-high 20-hit night. Rawdow collected a season-high five RBI in the contest.
The Lions offensive surge got started when Torres led off the second inning with a single to right field and was eventually brought home on a bases loaded walk by the Royals' starter Jeff Jacobsen.
Two innings later the Lions pushed two more runs across the board when a single from Gill brought home Chris Newcomb and a throwing error following Twitty's bunt base hit allowed Gill to come all the way home from first.
The following inning Revell tacked on another run when he connected on a pitch that nearly ended up on the roof of University Turf Stadium. Torres came up next and crushed a ball into the gap that put him on third base with triple, and he came home the very next batter when Perez roped one into the left-center gap.
The Saint Leo sixth inning was the one that really put this game out of reach for the Royals as the Lions plated four runs on five hits from Twitty, Blake Turner, Rawdow, Wan, and Newcomb in the inning. After Twitty and Turner singled, Rawdow tripled to bring home two runs. The next batter Wan singled through the right side which brought home Rawdow from third for his first run of the game. Two batters later, Newcomb connected with a liner down the left field line that scored Wan.
The Lions continued to keep their foot on the pedal and poured on three more runs in the seventh. Revell and Dieter Hamilton reached base on singles to set up a three-run blast from Rawdow off a palm tree in left field.
Relieving Dunnigan in the eighth inning was Henry Johnson who proceeded to throw two scoreless innings to close out the win.
The Lions hit the road this weekend for a three-game series against Palm Beach Atlantic. First pitch on Friday evening from Boca Raton is set for 6:00 p.m.
