January 30, 2012

By Ben Stell

Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Shorter University baseball team cruised to a 12-3 victory over Edward Waters College in the final game of its three-game opening road trip on Monday afternoon.

Shorter's offense was led by Blake McCullers, who went 3-for-4 with four RBI, and Hunter Smith, who turned in a 2-for-4 effort while adding three RBI.

Shorter's bats came alive early as the Hawks jumped out to a five run lead in the bottom of the first. After a walk and two hit batters loaded the bases with no outs, Smith and Bobby Triglia delivered back-to-back RBI singles to push the first two runs across the board. With the bases still loaded, McCullers followed up with the biggest blow of the inning with a three-run double to the left center gap to make it a 5-0 game.

Shorter would strike again in the bottom of the second for two more runs and extend its lead to 7-0.

Dadynoel Lorenzo got things started with a leadoff single and was then followed by Antonio Walcott's bunt single that put two runners on with no outs. Two batters later, Smith hit a sacrifice fly to left to plate the first run of the inning and then McCullers struck again with another RBI hit to left.

Smith would come through once more in the bottom of the fourth as he and Mike Miranda laced back-to-back RBI doubles to extend the lead to 9-0.

That would prove to be more than enough for the Shorter pitching staff as they dominated the Edward Waters bats.

Ryan Newell set the tone for the Hawks on the mound as he struck out 10 batters over 5.0 innings of work while allowing only one hit and walking just one.

Edward Waters managed to scratch across three runs in the late innings, but Shorter's commanding lead would be too much to overcome.

Shorter returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 4 when it welcomes the University of Pikeville to Robert H. Ledbetter Field for the 2012 home opener. The doubleheader is set to begin at 1 pm.