It may not have been the prettiest of games, but the Santa Fe Community College baseball team (8-3) still cruised to an 11-6 win against Hillsborough Community College (5-6) on Monday.
The Saints continued their hot hitting and capitalized on nine walks and seven Hawks errors on the day, including two miscues in the second inning that allowed SFCC to jump to a quick 5-0 lead.
Freshmen Andy Mee and second baseman Chad Graziano powered the Saints offensively, both going 3 for 4 with four RBIs each. Mee, while leading the pitching staff with a 2.08 ERA, has also been SFCC's best hitter. He is batting .552 with 12 RBIs on the season. Graziano has been quietly successful at the plate so far this season, hitting .412 with six RBIs.
"I felt good today," Graziano said. "It was my first three-hit game of the season, and I was feeling really comfortable at the plate."
SFCC coach Johnny Wiggs was pleased with what he saw from Graziano.
"It was a big game for him," Wiggs said. "I think he really needed that. He'd been hitting over .300, but he hadn't really hit the ball with that much authority, and that was especially big coming from our nine-hole hitter."
Sophomore lefthander John Lambert started on the mound for the Saints, but he struggled with his control and got into many deep counts, prompting Wiggs to go to the bullpen in the fifth inning.
Freshman righthander Bobby Bolling entered the game in a tight spot, with one out and the bases loaded, but he quickly notched two strikeouts to get out of the jam.
"That was huge for us," Wiggs said. "If he all of a sudden starts walking guys or gives up a big hit, they're right back in the game with all of the momentum, so I really believe that was the difference in the game.
"There are one or two spots in every game that are really pivotal, and sometimes the average fan doesn't see it quite as much. They'll say, 'Oh, you were up by four runs,' but we're one walk and one double away from it being a tie game again."
Bolling's 1 2/3 innings of relief earned him the win, bringing his record to 1-0.
While Wiggs expected the pitching to be the strength of his team at the beginning of the season, the bats have carried the Saints while the pitching staff has struggled with consistency. SFCC is batting .325 as a team, but the team ERA is 5.40.
"We're really trying to find out a lot about this club in nonconference play," Wiggs said. "We're trying not to get too high or too low. I'd like to play a little cleaner baseball in terms of pitching and defense, but we're heading in that direction. We've played 11 games and won eight of them, so we're pretty happy right now."
Graziano echoed his coach's sentiment, saying the team is focused on improving its play.
"It was a good win, but we could have played better," Graziano said. "We're still giving up too many runs, so we just need to get our pitching, defense and hitting all working together to really be the team we want to be."
