The Winona baseball team lost the first of three spring break games in Florida, falling to Ponce De Leon 9-3 Monday. The loss dropped the Tigers' record to 3-4.
The Tigers scored twice in the fifth to pull within 5-2, but Ponce De Leon put the game away with four runs in the sixth. Dakarrin Crawford, Mitch Stewart, Austin Winters and Jon Reuben Chesteen had hits for Winona. Crawford and Chesteen had RBIs and Garret Ables scored twice.
Chesteen pitched the first five innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits, with six strikeouts.
Prior to the trip, the Tigers had two wins against Amanda Elzy and a loss to French Camp last week.
Winona swept Amanda Elzy in a doubleheader 11-1 and 4-3. “In the first game Cade Eldridge threw really well for us and we hit the ball well,” said Winona head coach Mark Austin. “The second game, we walked too many and had several errors.”
Eldridge went four innings, allowing two hits and no earned runs, with 11 strikeouts.
Freshman Dalton Ferguson pitched shutout ball over the final two innings, allowing one hit and fanning four.
Stewart led a 15-hit attack, going three for four, with two runs scored and an RBI. Davandre Bays, Taylor Barfield, Chesteen and J.J. Looney each had two hits, with Bays having two doubles, an RBI and two runs scored.
Freshman Blake Cooper and Ables combined on a five-inning two-hitter, with 11 strikeouts and no earned runs in the second game. The Tigers had only four hits, but used small ball to pull out the win.
Winona lost to French Camp for the second time this year, falling 12-2. “We played well for three innings,” Austin said. “After that we just fell apart. We didn't hit the ball and we made too many errors.”
