By: Chad Beattie
BOCA RATON, Fla. – Lynn University’s baseball team has moved up in the national polls with a road trip to Lakeland, Fla., for a three-game series against Florida Southern on the docket for this weekend. The Fighting Knights made the jump to No. 5 in College Baseball Lineup, No. 10 in D2Baseball News, No. 14 in Collegiate Baseball and No. 18 for the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
The Blue & White (20-8, 4-2 SSC) are coming off a 4-1 week in which they downed two nationally-ranked opponents and took two out of three games from Sunshine State Conference foe Rollins. Anthony Boza batted .524 with a 1.000 slugging and a .565 on-base percentage. The Lynn slugger added two home runs, six runs batted in and eight runs scored.
Kentrail Pierce, Shawn Kale and Jason Whalen provided solid starts on the mound for LU, combining for 22 strikeouts in 23 innings pitched with three wins.
Boza and Kale have been the driving forces behind the Knights’ success as Boza leads the team in every offensive category while Kale is tops in ERA, strikeouts and opposing hitters batting average among the pitching staff.
Lynn travels to face-off against Florida Southern and improve their standing within the SSC. Lynn currently ranks second in the league while Florida Southern sits sixth with a 16-12 overall mark and 6-6 conference record. Meeting for the first time in 1984, the Moccasins hold a 49-19 edge in the all-time series. The last time LU took a series against FSC was 2009 when the Fighting Knights swept the Mocs at home.