WINTER PARK, Fla. - Saint Leo Baseball dug deep and found a way on Wednesday night taking down Rollins, 9-8, at Alfond Stadium in Winter Park, Florida for their second straight win on the season. 

The Tars got out to a big lead in the first inning, making the night tough quickly for the Lions. Rollins put up a five spot in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a Cameron Meehan grand slam to right center to open up their big lead to 5-0. Freshman Peyton Petry got the start for Saint Leo, and he was able to stop the bleeding in the second before making an early exit, forcing the Tars to lay a goose egg in the bottom half of the second inning. 

That's when the Green and Gold got to work on their comeback. The Lions went on to score single runs in the second, third, and fourth innings. Tyler Trovinger lined an RBI single into center in the second to score Bobby Sparling. Sparling delivered an RBI of his own in the third on a single up the middle to score Buck Anderson in the third inning. That was followed by a fielders choice RBI off the bat of Eddie Niemann in the fourth that allowed Tyler Trovinger to come home and score. All of a sudden, Saint Leo trailed by just two, 5-3. 

The Lions got into more danger in the fifth, however, when Rollins loaded the bases with just one out. Mike Bernas came on to pitch for the Lions, but gave up an Aidan Healy RBI single to move the runners over a base and make it 6-3 Rollins. Luckily for the Lions, that's all the damage that was done. 

Saint Leo then pounced on some opportunities in the sixth inning. Kieran Casey came out of the pen for the Tars in the sixth, and hit three batters to load the bases. Paul Coumoulos, Trovinger, and Niemann all took one for the team to set up the opportunity for Buck Anderson to deliver a momentum swinging RBI double to the gap in left center to bring the Lions to within one, 6-5. Dylan McDonald joined the party with a two-run RBI double of his own, scoring Niemann and Anderson to lift the Lions on top, 7-6. 

Rollins, picked fifth in the SSC Preseason Poll, wouldn't go away silently into the night, however. A sac-fly pop out in the bottom of the seventh tied the game at 7-7 for the Tars and put the pressure back on Saint Leo. 

Fast forwarding to the top of the eighth inning, the Lions got their offense going yet again. Trovinger and Giuseppe Arcuri both singled to set up Yazael Nunez to do what he's been doing all season long: coming up clutch. With two on and one out, Nunez singled to right, and after a throwing error on the infield from Rollins, Trovinger came home to score and Arcuri and Nunez both moved up a base. Buck Anderson then came to the plate with a golden opportunity to add some insurance to the Lions' 8-7 lead, and did just that, singling home Arcuri to give Saint Leo a 9-7 lead. 

Jestin Jones would then come on in the bottom of the ninth to try and close it out for the Lions. A couple miscues on the infield allowed Rollins to get runners on second and third with just one out. An RBI groundout made it a one-run game with two outs to get the tying run on third and the winning run on second, but Jones came up big striking out the final batter and securing a 9-8 win for Saint Leo to move the Lions to 4-1 on the season. 

Anderson finished the night with three RBI's, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored. McDonald added two RBI's on two big hits. Sparling continued his early tear on the season going 3-for-5 with a RBI. And Trovinger also had three hits on four at-bats with a RBI. 

Drew Rudsinski came away with the win for the Lions, his first of the season. The sophomore pitched the sixth and seventh innings, not allowing a run while giving up one hit and striking out a single batter. Jones earned the save for his first of the year. 

Saint Leo now gets set for a three-game series this coming weekend at Flagler, with the first game set for Friday night at 6:00 from Drysdale Field. The Lions and Saints will then play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1:00 in St. Augustine, Florida.