AUBURNDALE, FL - Pioneer baseball flew to Florida on Friday afternoon in preparation for a big week of baseball, with seven games over five days on the docket starting on Saturday afternoon. That Saturday matchup marked a good start to the spring break slate, with the orange and blue bats cashing in a crooked number of runs in a 14-6 victory to open the gauntlet this afternoon.
 
Kooper Knabe (Cortland, NY/Cortland) toed the rubber to start for the Pioneers, doing four innings of solid work in his second start of the season. The reigning Empire 8 Pitcher of the Week allowed just three hits and two earned runs during the outing, fanning four batters and picking up his second win of the young season.
 
Connor Ford (Swedesboro, NJ/Kingsway Regional) and Peyton Newton (Weedsport, NY/Weedsport) came on in relief of Knabe, with Ford going two innings and Newton going three innings to round out the pitching in the Pioneers' opening outing of spring break. Newton had an especially solid showing, allowing just three hits and zero runs in his trio of frames. The junior was also dynamic, sitting down five Delaware Valley batters via strikeout, earning K's on over half of his recorded outs.
 
Despite this productive pitching performance, it was the Pioneer lineup who stole the show, exploding for 14 runs in the game with 13 of their runners crossing the plate during a four-inning stretch between the fifth and eighth frames.
 
The lone run scored by the team during the opening stages of the game was cashed in by Pioneer newcomer Ty Montrose (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro), who picked up three hits and four RBI to lead the offense in the victory. Montrose logged a sacrifice fly to open the scoring in the top of the first, which he capitalized on in his later at-bats as a pair of RBI singles in the sixth and eighth innings pushed his RBI total to four.
 
Jacob Pian (Stony Point, NY/North Rockland) also pitched in on the offensive end, with the designated hitter doing his job efficiently as he notched a pair of base knocks in addition to three RBI.
 
Despite all this run production from Montrose and Pian, it was actually the Pioneers' catcher Jacob Scalise (Utica, NY/Whitesboro) who hauled in the most hits, racking up four base knocks and accounting for five total runs via two RBI and three runs scored.
 
Both of Scalise's RBI plated last weekend's offensive standout Kody Czternastek (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro), with the Pioneer shortstop making waves in this matchup as well. Czternastek rounded out the Pioneer batters with multiple RBI as he picked up two such tallies. He also crossed home twice off of Scalise's singles, accounting for four total runs.
 
Mike Rockwell (Liverpool, NY/Cicero) and Lance Berger (Lindenhurst, NY/Saint Anthony's) completed the cast of Pioneers with multiple hits in the contest as Rockwell notched three and Berger grabbed two.
 
The Pioneers improved to 2-1 on the season and started off their Spring Break slate in the win column. They'll return to action tomorrow with a doubleheader against AMCC rep Penn State Altoona. Game one of the doubleheader will get underway at 10:15 AM tomorrow morning.