A sluggish start proved costly for the Lee baseball team as it fell 8-4 on Thursday afternoon at Albany State.
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Senior Rob Gustitus (0-1) made his first start of 2018 and labored through 1.2 innings allowing five runs on four hits and three walks. Gustitus is working his way back from an injury this fall.
The Flames had a chance to minimize the damage in the Golden Rams' four-run second but allowed two unearned runs to score thanks to a two-out throwing error that extended the inning.
The Lee bullpen tossed 6.1 innings and allowed just three runs (two earned).
Davis Gurosky settled things down tossing three scoreless frames. Andrew Franklin and John Reese Gilmer also put up zeroes in their two innings of work.
Junior slugger Miguel Pimentel continued to swing a hot bat for the Flames. The third basemen drilled his second home run of the season in the third inning. Pimentel also singled in the contest and his hitting .468 and slugging .826 through seven games played.
Lee battled back to pull within two at 6-4 with two runs in the top of the eighth. Ryan Beamish doubled home Peyton Meeker and Tyler Payne drove in Spencer Mossburg on a sacrifice fly.
Beamish and Meeker joined Pimentel with multi-hit efforts for the Flames while Chase Andrews and Fernando Ortiz both doubled. Lee tallied 10-hits but struggled to find the elusive big hit in leaving nine runners on base.
Albany State would respond with a pair of insurance runs in the bottom half of the eighth however. Riliani Familia roped an RBI double before the Rams added the final run on a Lee throwing error. Familia homored in the second inning and finished with three RBI and three runs scored. Nic Greggs doubled and singled twice to help pace the 13-hit performance from the home team.
Michael Reddick started and worked a scoreless inning to earn the victory. The Golden Rams used six different pitchers.
"We feel behind way too early and it proved too much to overcome. We had a chance to get off the field with two outs in the second before they put up the four runs, but we couldn't make the play when we needed too," said head coach Mark Brew. "On the bright side, I thought Gurosky, Franklin and Gilmer pitched really well and allowed us a chance to fight back. We also swung the bats better, but still couldn't get the big hit when we needed it. It's another opportunity tomorrow for improvement tomorrow night at Florida Southern."
The loss drops Lee to 3-5 on the young season while the Golden Rams improve to an even 3-3.
The road trip continues for the Flames as they head down to Lakeland to take on No. 19 Florida Southern in a three-game series beginning tomorrow evening at 6 p.m.