Winter Haven, FL - On Sunday afternoon the Highlanders and FDU-Florham Devils took the field with the intention of playing a doubleheader, but mother nature had other plans. The Devils earned a 5-4 victory over Cairn with a run in the top of the seventh inning before rain interrupted the second game in the third inning canceling the game.
The first game of the scheduled doubleheader featured momentum swings back and forth before eventually ending with the Highlanders falling by a 5-4. The Devils edged the Highlanders thanks to a game-altering triple in the top of the seventh that set-up the game winning single with one away. Cairn could not piece together a rally in the seventh and fell by one.
The top of the order carried the Highlanders offensively,
Jacob Allen and
Nathan Wilson each collected two hits while
Aaron Takacs drove home two on a pair of ground outs in the game.
The game started off with a bang when the Devils' Garrett Ruoff roped a double to left field. He came around to score on a single and the Devils added a second run on a sacrifice fly later in the frame to take an early 2-0 lead.
Jake Allen started off the Highlanders' half of the frame with a chopped single to third base and beat it out.
Nathan Wilson followed with a single through the left-side and Allen later game around on a groundout from
Aaron Takacs. The very next batter was Josh Field and he connected through the right-side for an RBI single to tie the game at 2-2.
The second inning brought in two more runs for the Devils. FDU-Florham scored on an RBI double down the left field line and a hit by a pitch to take a 4-2 lead.
That lead would hold into the bottom of the fifth when
Cam Kantner would lead off the inning with a single down the right field line.
Brendan Keller followed with a single to right to put runners on first and second. Allen executed a perfect sacrifice bunt on the first pitch he saw and Wilson brought home a run with a single on the very next pitch. Takacs then followed with a ground ball to second to plate Cairn's fourth run of the day and tie the game at 4-4.
After a three-up, three-down inning for FDU-Florham in the top of the sixth, the Highlanders put a runner on with a two-out walk in the bottom half of the inning, but could not get him home.
The Devils then used a one-out triple to spark a short, but effective rally to tally the eventual game winning run. Ben Thompson stroked a triple to the left-center gap and Dylan DiPolvere followed with a bouncing ball up the middle for a single.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Highlanders were turned away in order and the Devils emerged with the 5-4 victory.
On the bump,
Eric Stinglen started and allowed four earned runs in three innings on four hits and five walks.
Caleb Maige came in relief of Stinglen in the fourth and twirled three scoreless innings.
Emilio Alvarez came on to pitch the seventh and allowed two hits including the triple to left center and took the loss allowing one run.
For the Devils, Kenny Carrier hurled a complete game allowing four runs (all earned) on seven hits with five strikeouts to claim his first victory of the season.
The night-cap lasted just two and a half innings before it was called due to rain. The rain did not put a damper on the spirits of the Highlanders or the Devils. Over the next hour, the two squads went back-and-forth with rain delay antics to entertain themselves, the fans, and the umpires. See the video above for all the highlights from the delay.
The Highlanders will take the next two days off before they take the field on Wednesday when they square off against Vassar College.
