Southwest Florida Christian Defeats Evangelical Christian

The Southwest Florida Christian Kings hosted the Evangelical Christian Sentinels on Friday night. The game was a constant back and forth battle between both teams coming down to a bases-loaded, two-out scenario in the seventh. Southwest Florida Christian defeated Evangelical Christian with a final score of 11-10.

Evangelical Christian was able to score a quick run in the top of the seventh, cutting the Kings lead down one. A hard single by Jason Wolff brought the tying run to plate for the Sentinels. Back-to-back walks then loaded the bases with two outs for the Sentinals. Southwest Florida was able to hold on to its one-run lead after Mikey Marcel lined out to the left fielder.

The game got of to a quick start with no runners reaching base in the first inning. but it would not take long for both teams to get their offenses going. Evangelical Christian scored the first run of the game in the top of the second. It did not take long for the King’s to respond by scoring three of their own in the bottom of the second inning.

“I am very happy of the way we battled tonight,” said Southwest Florida’s manager JW Wilkerson.

Southwest Florida Christian’s ace Mike Gerwitz was able to retire three consecutive batters after allowing a single to Clayton Cutshall, giving the Kings a chance to add to their lead. Max Rippl got the bottom of the third inning started with a deep home run over the right-center field fence.

The Kings continued to add pressure by loading the bases several times throughout the inning. A patient at bat by Justin Vasquez resulted in a bases-loaded walk, allowing the King’s to score their fifth run of the night.

“I have: ‘Every strikes brings me to closer to my next home run’ on my arm,” said Southwest Florida’s Max Rippl.

What appeared to be a commanding 5-1 lead was quickly erased by Sentinels. They scored a total of three runs while bringing seven batter to the plate in the forth inning. The big hit of the inning was an opposite-field, two-run double by Evangelical Christian’s Mark Fuchs. Mark Fuchs later scored as well, bringing the King’s lead down to one.

The game did not stay close for long. Southwest Florida sent a total of 10 batters up to bat with five of them being able to cross the plate.

“We had a lot of mental errors and came up short in the end,” said Evangelical Christian manager Jeff Kieffer.

With the score being 10-4 the Sentinels refused to quit and responded with a rally of their own.

Shane Reynolds hit a double to get the fifth inning started. A walk and a bloop single would allow Evangelical Christian to load the bases with no outs. After a fielder’s choice resulted with Shane Reynolds being thrown out at home. One run then scored on a ground ball hit to the shortstop. A clutch two-out single by Mark Fuchs gave the Sentinels an additional two runs. A well-executed hit-and-run by Billy Genter then allowed Fuchs to score from second.

The King’s ace, sophomore Mike Gerwitz, was still on the hill entering the top of the seventh with an 11-9 lead. Gerwitz would throw a total of 117 pitches throughout his six-and-two-third innings of work. Gertwitz featured an electric fastball and a devastating curve ball throughout the night.

“I felt very good on the mound.” Gerwitz said. “My teammates gave me a lot of run support, which helped me maintain my composer.”

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