WINTER PARK, Fla. - The Wayne State University baseball team (3-1) lost the first game of its eight-day trip to Florida, a 14-3 result at Rollins College (12-5) on Thursday evening at Alfond Stadium.

The Warriors, who scored three unearned runs in the late innings, were held to just three hits by Mike Howard (2-1), who walked three and struck out five over eight innings.

Rollins established a 9-0 lead through four innings.  The Tars scored five runs in the first inning, cutting short the WSU debut of starter Chris Waha (Charlevoix, Mich.), the first of five pitchers used by Wayne State in the game.

A single by Brad Guenther (Ann Arbor, Mich./Saline) to start the game was the only hit allowed by Howard until the sixth, when a walk to J.J. Ciennik (Waterford, Mich./Mott) and a single by Chris Gebara (Troy, Mich.) put two aboard with two outs.  Both Warriors went on to score later in the inning on two separate infield errors to make it a 9-2 game.

The Tars scored once in the bottom of the sixth and four runs in the eighth.  Wayne State tacked on a two-out run in the ninth as Josh Schafer (Mt. Pleasant, Mich.), who reached on a walk, scored on a passed ball.

Anthony Figliolia, Sean Reilly, and Brandon Curson led Rollins with two hits apiece.  Curson and Kevin Mager each hit a home run.

Wayne State will face Rockhurst in a doubleheader Friday at 11:00 a.m. at the RussMatt Invitational in Winter Haven.


NOTES
Thursday was the first ever meeting between Wayne State and Rollins … each team committed three errors in the game … Keaton LeBlanc (LaSalle, Ont./St. Thomas of Villanova) made his WSU debut in relief of Waha in the first inning.