Box Score After two wild games yesterday the John Carroll University baseball team looked to end its week-long Florida trip with a 4-4 mark.

After letting an early 5-run lead slip away the Blue Streaks regrouped to take the 10-8 decision on Saturday afternoon inside South Regional Park in Punta Gorda, Fla.

The Blue Streaks utilized a patient approach at the plate and finally struck for five runs in the bottom of the third inning. Robby Cifelli started the rally with a 1-out single and the Blue Streaks promptly loaded the bases was Bobby Sabatino was hit by a pitch and Mitchell Herringshaw walked. Jimmy Spagna drove in the first run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to center.

From there John Carroll capitalized on Neumann's miscues. Sabatino would score on a wild pitch. The Blue and Gold would send their third run of the inning across with aggressive base running. Chet Lauer attempted to steal second on a 3-1 pitch which was called ball four. The Knights' Kyle Leone launched the throw into centerfield which allows Herringshaw to come in to score. John Carroll would plate its final two runs of the inning when pitcher Kevin Griffin dropped a popup.

The lead would not hold as Newman would score seven unanswered runs.

After only allowing two hits in the first three innings Mark Materise ran into a jam in the fourth inning. The freshman allowed two of the first three Knight hitters to reach base and then hit three batters in a row. Carn Stimpson hit a sacrifice fly to the centerfielder to knot the score at five.
Neumann's Buddy Elgin laced a triple to start the fifth inning and would come in to give the Knights the 6-5 lead on Lauer's throw on a steal. Neumann would add a second run in the frame on a sacrifice fly.

John Carroll pounced on another critical Neumann error to pull out in front 9-7 in the bottom of the sixth inning. Joe Wilimczyk started the frame slicing a single to left which was followed by Jake Schoch being plunked in the helmet to give JCU to base runners with no outs. Sabatino drove in JCU's first run of the inning with an RBI groundout.

The real damage came when third baseman Elgin could not handle Herringshaw's grounder to allow the inning to extend, and plating the game-tying run. Spagna then clubbed a triple to the right field fence to pull John Carroll ahead before scoring on Lauer's 2-out single.

John Carroll would add an insurance run in the eighth inning to make it a 10-7 ballgame. Herringshaw roped a double down the leftfield line and came in to score on Spagna's third RBI of the game.

Neumann looked for a rally in the ninth inning getting its first two hitters on base off of Kevin Rosinski. The senior regrouped and was helped out by his defense rolling a 6-4-3 double play.

Junior Anthony Libertini picked up the win for the Blue Streaks. The righty fired four innings of relief only allowing one hit and one run. Libertini struck out five hitters. Kevin Rosinski picked up the save for JCU's first save of the year.

"He came in a little bit of a tough spot," said Marc Thibeault. "He settled in nicely. He was able to be efficient with his pitches and collect big outs in the middle of the game. He was able to bridge that to the end. WIth the end of the week our arms are on fire so we wanted to try not to use many in that situation and Libertini really picked us up and helped us get that win."

Spagna led the charge at the plate with two hits and three RBIs. Herringshaw also added three hits on the afternoon.

John Carroll finished its Florida spring break trip with a 4-4 record and is 5-6 overall on the season. The Blue Streaks travel to Thiel for a doubleheader on Friday, March 14. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.