AUBURNDALE, Fla. (Mar. 5) – The Saint Vincent baseball team fell to Marian University, 11-4, in non-conference action Thursday morning at Lake Myrtle Park.
 
The Bearcats (1-5) kept the game tight through the middle innings and finished with 13 hits, but Marian (3-3) used a big eighth inning and took advantage of five Saint Vincent errors to pull away.
 
Marian opened the scoring in the top of the third on an RBI single from Marc Jones, but Saint Vincent answered in the bottom half of the inning as Ryan Tierney drove in Brooklyn Hicks on an RBI groundout to knot the score at 1-1.
 
The Knights pushed back in front with two runs in the fourth, getting an RBI sacrifice fly from Lucas Lemons and an RBI single by Ayden Kanaman to make it 3-1. Saint Vincent responded again in the bottom of the frame, trimming the deficit to one when Traynor Janosko lifted a sacrifice fly to score Nolan Hurd.
 
Marian added two runs in the fifth—one on a sacrifice fly and another unearned—before tacking on a run in the sixth to extend the lead to 6-2. The decisive stretch came in the eighth inning, when Marian scored four runs (three unearned) to open up a 10-2 advantage.
 
Saint Vincent showed life in the ninth, as Carlos Rubio doubled and later scored on Jack Murphy's RBI double. Murphy then came home on a Sam Elich RBI single to close out the scoring.
 
Dylan Schmude led the Bearcats offensively, going 3-for-4. Hurd and Brooklyn Hicks each posted two-hit games, while Brennen Freiwald finished 2-for-3 with two walks. Murphy and Elich each drove in a run off the bench in the ninth.
 
On the mound, Garrett Knapp took the loss for Saint Vincent, working four innings.
 
The Bearcats return to action Friday, March 6 with a matchup against Hope College in Auburndale. First pitch is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. at Lake Myrtle (#8).