Fort Pierce, FL – On an overcast, humid afternoon the Cairn Highlanders would head to the back field of the Lawnwood Baseball Complex for game number 7 of their Florida Spring Break trip.  Cairn faced Western Connecticut State and would avenge being swept in a doubleheader last year.  Cairn erupted for 13 runs on 16 hits to win 13-4 over the Colonials.

Western Connecticut struck first in the top of the third with a leadoff homerun to give the Colonials a quick 1-0 lead.  That would lead would be short lived.  In the bottom of the third, Josh Melchior singled up the middle, and then came around to score on Alejandro Fernandez's double.  Later in the same inning, with no body on base and 2 outs, Daniel Morales blasted his second homerun of the trip to right field giving Cairn the 2-1 lead.

Starting pitcher Nat Ross had a great outing scattering 8 hits over 6 innings, only giving up the 1 run and striking out 4 batters.  The defense behind Ross did a great job turning double plays and eliminating base runners.

In the 5^th, Cairn used their aggressive running style on the base paths and forced 4 Western Connecticut errors while scoring 2 runs to take the 4-1 lead.  In the 6^th, Cairn added another run when Emilio Alvarez singled to right field, stole second, advanced to third on a throwing error and would trot home on a sac fly by Trey Valiton.

Bryan Stimpson took over the on mound in the 7^th for the Highlanders relieving Nat Ross.  Stimpson threw 2 scoreless innings giving up only 1 hit, which was erased on a double play.  Stimpson would get an easy 1-2-3 inning with 2 fly outs and a strikeout to end his day.

Cairn busted the game wide open in the 8^th.  Trey Valiton led off the inning with a single and quickly stole 2^nd base.  Alejandro Fernandez followed that up with an infield single of his own.  Both runners would steal 2^nd and 3^rd to be in scoring position for Mike Sorowice.  It didn't matter, as Sorowice crushed a ball to right center field for the 3 run homerun extending the lead to 8-1.  With Brian Amantia and Brett Marks on the bases, Nate Wilson hit his second extra base hit of the game with a double to right center, scoring Amantia.  Marks would score on a passed ball, and Wilson would later score on a single by Alvarez.  Caleb Edman singled to left field and Fernandez would get hit to load the bases.  Sorowice would come up for the second time in the inning and hit a single to score 2 more runs.  Cairn led 13-1 going into the 9^th inning.
Matt Meyers came on to close out the game for Cairn.  The junior would pick up a fly out and 2 strike outs to end the game, not before Western Connecticut could score 3 runs. 

The Highlanders will finish out their trip to Florida with a doubleheader with Washington College (MD) before flying back to Langhorne.  First pitch is slated for 8:30 am