The Blazers Varsity Baseball team travelled to Bradenton last night for what could be their biggest match-up of the year against the Bradenton Christian Panthers. Randall Collins started out on the mound and had a rocky start, giving up three runs in the first off of a double, 2 walks, and a single. From that point on Randall was focused, striking out the side in the Panthers second inning and not surrendering another run until the bottom of the fifth to a walk and 2 hits. The Blazers scored a run in the second after Alex Hefti singled and was driven in on an Evan Poznanski triple. It looked like the Blazers would score atleast two in the inning, but a fielders choice grounder to the shortstop caught Poznanski dead at the plate. The Blazers then took to the plate in the top of the fifth inning, down 1-3, and strung together several strong hits to take a 4-3 lead. Connor Lundy and Rowan Baum started things off with walks, before Luke LeClair set down a sacrifice bunt down the first base line that they first baseman threw wide of third base, allowing Lundy to slide in safely and fill the bases for the Blazers as they returned to the top of the order. Justin Brock sliced a ball down the left field line that landed just inside the line and moved all the runners up one base. Alex Hefti then hit a deep fly ball to bring in a second run and tie the game at 3. Poznanski then hit a scorcher down the third base line and Luke LeClair would come around from second base to score the go-ahead run 4-3. Collins looked strong on the mound with the lead in the 6th inning, striking out one batter and inducing a lazy fly ball to left fielder Will Papineau for the second out, but ran out of pitches before he could finish out the 6th. Poznanski took up where Collins left off, striking out the next batter to push the game into the 7th inning. Poznanski stuck out the first two batters to begin the 7th and had the Panthers leadoff hitter on the ropes before he hit a spinner that was just out of Poznanski's reach and the batter made it to first base before second baseman Rowan Baum could get to the ball. Then, with a strike on the batter, the Panthers started the runner and the Panthers pitcher Garrett Duquette laced a ball up the ally in right center field for the victory. Poznanski led the way at the plate, going 3-4 with a triple and 2 RBI. Connor Lundy batted .500 on the evening, going 1-2 and earning a huge walk during the 3 run top of the sixth inning. Collins struck out 8 batters, walking 5 and giving up 4 earned runs, while Poznanski struck out 3 batters, giving up just two hits and the one earned run.