Tampa, FL -The Castleton State College baseball team opened their spring trip to Tampa, Florida with an 8-5 win over Skidmore College. With the win Castleton improves to 2-3 on the young season, while the Thoroughbreds fall to 3-5.

Travis Bass started his first collegiate game on the mound for the Spartans and pitched three solid innings, allowing three hits and one earned run while striking out three. Bass gave way to Jeremy Gilcris who struggled through a pair of innings, allowing four runs, but received plenty of support from the offense to earn the win. Tom Cummings and Ron Cahill pitched four scoreless innings of relief, with Cahill working the final two to earn the save.

Castleton fell behind 1-0 after the first inning, but rallied for two runs in the second and one more in the third. Skidmore would tie the score at three but a three-run fourth inning, capped by a Tim Zorio 2-run homerun put the Spartans in the lead for good.

Zorio led the offense with three hits, two RBI and one run scored. Freshman, Jon Handy, added three hits including a triple and one RBI. Eric Anderson chipped in with a pair of hits and two RBI as Castleton pounded out 14 hits on the game.