Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 LEESBURG, Fla. – Suffolk (Mass.) University's Jack Mihalchik hit a game-winning bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Lakeland University baseball team took a tough 6-5 loss in its season opener at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational Saturday.

The Muskies opened their spring break trip with a pair of losses, also falling to College of St. Scholastica (Minn.) 11-5 in their second game Saturday. The games were the first two of 12 games Lakeland will play over the next seven days in the central Florida area.

The Muskies took an early lead but then fell behind before putting together a rally from a 5-2 deficit to tie the game. Ultimately it would be the Rams getting the last word, though, loading the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth after a single and two walks and winning it on Mihalchik's single to center field to score Garret Roberts with the winning run.

Lakeland scored the first two runs of the game in the top of the first, as Zak Keegan (Jr.-Frankfort, Ill.) singled, Nathan Walter (Fr.-Watertown, Wis.) doubled, and both would come in to score. OakLee Spens (Sr.-South Weber, Utah) grounded out to shortstop to send in Keegan and get the Muskies on the board, and Tucker Gegenfurtner (Fr.-Onalaska, Wis.) followed with a two-out single to score Walter for a 2-0 lead.

Suffolk (3-2 overall) responded with two runs to tie in the third and then scored three times in the fourth, including a two-out, two-run single by Roberts to extend the lead to 5-2. Lakeland cut the deficit back down to one in the sixth inning, as Jacob Wollschlager (So.-Kenosha, Wis.) singled to drive in Spens and Quinn Bradford (Fr.-Wayne, Ill.) hit a two-out double to score Gegenfurtner and make it 5-4.

The Muskies then capitalized for a run in the eighth, as Landon Mani (Fr.-Germantown, Wis.) walked with one out and later scored from second on a two-out single through the left side by Chris Day (So.-Victorville, Calif.) to tie the game. Lakeland would strand runners at second and third in the eighth and went down 1-2-3 in the ninth before Suffolk put together the game-winning rally.

Gegenfurtner went 3-for-5 in his Lakeland debut and Spens and Bradford added two hits each. Nathan Stephany (Fr.-Kiel, Wis.) started and went 6 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and five runs (four earned) with four strikeouts, while Michael Castillo (Fr.-Cibolo, Texas) took the loss with 1 2/3 innings of relief allowing three hits and a run with three walks and two strikeouts.

The Muskies also dropped their second game under the lights, as St. Scholastica (3-1 overall) bolted out to a 6-0 lead that proved too much to overcome.

Gegenfurtner drove in a pair of runs with a two-run single in the fourth to score Walter and Spens and get Lakeland on the board, and Walter later provided a highlight with his first collegiate home run, a two-run homer to left in the seventh to draw the Muskies within 7-4.

The Saints added four runs over the eighth and ninth innings, though, to stretch the lead back out. Lakeland added a final run in the bottom of the ninth as freshman Dane Nickolai (Sheboygan Falls, Wis.) drove in Keegan with a groundout to close the scoring.

Walter and Spens both had two hits in the second game. Gegenfurtner took the loss on the mound, allowing six hits and seven runs (three earned) with four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.

The Muskies are back on the field Sunday with two games, first facing Keystone (Pa.) College at 11:15 a.m. Central time, 12:15 p.m. in Florida. Lakeland then will take on the Owls of the University of Maine-Presque Isle shortly after, with both games played at the Lake Myrtle Complex on Field 1 in Auburndale, Fla.