TAMPA, Fla. – The No. 5-seed Valdosta State Blazer baseball team was unable to come back from an early 8-0 deficit as it fell to No. 4-seed Rollins College Friday afternoon in the first game of the NCAA South Regional.  The Blazers now will battle No. 8-seed Spring Hill College on Friday in an elimination game at 1 p.m.
 
Click here for the NCAA South Regional Championship Central page for links to live stats and streaming of the game Friday.
 
VSU (33-19) scored seven runs on ten hits with one error, while Rollins (35-16) scored 18 runs on 22 hits and one error in the game.  The Tars scored eight runs on ten hits in the first inning to take the early lead after the Blazers went down in order in the top of the frame as 13 batters came to the plate in the frame. 
 
The Blazers began the top of the second with a solo home run from graduate student Nick Gonzalez for an 8-1 deficit and then plated four runs in the third to pull within 8-5.  With runners at the corners and one out in the third, a throwing error, plated junior Jacob Harper who had reached on a walk to begin the inning.  Graduate student JP Gates singled down the left field line for an 8-2 score.  Following a single from Gonzalez, sophomore Jovanni Canegitta singled to left, plating Gates and graduate student Jakob Sessa singled home Gonzalez for an 8-5 score. 
 
Rollins' offensive attack proved to be too much for the Blazers as the Tars scored two in the fourth, one in the fifth, four in the sixth for a 15-5 score.  The Blazers used a two RBI single from Sessa in the seventh for a 15-7 score, but Rollins added one in the bottom of the frame and two in the eighth as it scored at least one run in each of the final five innings of the game for the 18-7 final. 
 
Offensively for the Blazers, Gonzalez was 2 for 4 with three runs scored, one RBI and a home run to earn Guardian Bank Blazer Player of the Game honors, while Gates was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and one RBI.  Blazer starter sophomore JJ Finn (1-3) lasted just 0.2 innings, allowing nine hits, eight earned runs.  Sophomore Zach Dodson and senior Marvin De La Hoz also pitched in the game. 
 
Rollins had five different players register three hits or more in the game and the Tars hit four home runs with six doubles, while striking out 11 Blazers.