Baseball Ends Stay in Port Charlotte with Pair of Defeats

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Defiance rounded out its 2009 spring trip to the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla., on Friday with a pair of losses. The Yellow Jackets suffered a 10-6 setback against Becker in the morning game, before falling by a 12-3 score to Benedictine in their eighth and final game of the week.

DC topped Becker, 4-3, earlier in the week and this time the two teams hooked up for a slugfest which saw 16 runs put on the board. Defiance had the hot bats early and grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, before plating three in the third to build a 5-2 advantage.

Becker broke through in the bottom of the fourth, scoring six runs to grab the 8-5 lead. The Hawks then added a pair of insurance tallies in the eighth inning to widen the spread to 10-6.

Kirk Jesse led the six-run, 14-hit attack by the DC lineup, by posting four hits, two runs, three RBI and two stolen bases in the loss. Alex Timofeev added three hits, Aaron Stewart had a pair of hits and Michael Dushane stayed hot with two more hits.

The second game saw Benedictine score six runs in its final two at bats to blow open what had been a close contest. Defiance scored a pair of runs in the third and one in the sixth to trim the Eagles' lead to 6-3 heading into the seventh inning.

Jesse led the charge once again with two more hits, while Brad Timofeev and Braden Bugler each had multi-hit games for the Jackets.

Nick Picciano (1-1) took the loss despite only giving up one earned run in five innings. The senior hurler was let down by the DC defense, which struggled yet again and committed six errors.

Defiance (3-7) will now return north to host Albion College on Tuesday at 4:00 pm.