FORT PIERCE, Fla. – It was a tough day for the Geneva College baseball team as it opened its week in Florida over Spring Break on Monday afternoon.  The Golden Tornadoes took on Dominican in its first of seven games in Florida, and after a solid first inning, things went downhill quickly, with Dominican picking up a convincing 15-3 win.  Geneva dropped to 2-3, while Dominican improved to 4-4.

Geneva took advantage of some wildness from Dominican's starter Jeremy Davidson, who with one out hit a batter and walked the next two Golden Tornadoes to load the bases.  Junior Dillon Bickerton (Salem, Ohio/Salem) drove one in with an RBI-groundout to give Geneva the early lead, though the Golden Tornadoes had a chance for more but left the bases loaded.

Starting pitcher Austin Petraglia (Connellsville, Pa./Connellsville) took the ball to begin the game, and he retired the side in order in the bottom of the first, including a strikeout.

Davidson settled down, though, and over the next three innings he proceeded to strike out nine straight Geneva batters.  With the Golden Tornadoes struggling on offense, the Dominican bats went to work in the second inning against Petraglia.  An inside-the-park home run got the Stars rolling in the second, and they proceeded to score five runs in the inning.  Dominican then knocked Petraglia out of the game in the bottom of the third, scoring seven more times to take a commanding 12-1 lead after three innings.  Dominican added three more runs in the fifth inning.

Geneva finished out the scoring in the top of the seventh inning on a two-out, two-RBI single from freshman Gabriel Morales (Homestead, Fla./South Dade), with Dominican winning 15-3 in seven innings.

Petraglia went 2.1 innings and gave up eight runs, though just four were earned due to Geneva errors, picking up the loss.  Geneva's offense managed just three hits in the game.

"This was just one of those games," said Head Coach Alan Sumner.  "Their starting pitcher had some really good stuff, and our young team took some lumps today.  The nice thing about this week in Florida is we get another chance tomorrow to get right back onto the field and quickly move on from today's game."

Geneva will take on Norwich tomorrow in a doubleheader, beginning at 10:00 a.m.


Geneva College is a Christ-centered academic community that provides a comprehensive education to equip students for faithful and fruitful service to God and neighbor. Offering over 145 traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality. Geneva is included on Kiplinger's Personal Finance's "2019 Best College Values" list and has one of the top undergraduate engineering programs in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report. Adhering to the truth of Scripture, a Geneva education is grounded in God's Word as well as in a core curriculum designed to prepare students vocationally to think, write and communicate well in today's world.