WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The Palm Beach Atlantic baseball team had their long-awaited return to action tonight as they hosted the Florida Southern Moccasins in their 2021 season debut. The Sailfish will have to wait for their first victory as hot FSC bats downed the Sailfish 11-2 tonight.

Sailfish ace Christian Denton was on the mound tonight for PBA, but his night was spoiled by a good-looking Moccasins lineup that forced Denton out of the game after pitching 4.2 innings. He was charged with four runs, all earned, on five hits as he struck out five batters and walked two. After retiring the first two batters, he was greeted roughly by FSC's Jacob Teeter who took him deep to right field for a solo homerun. He surrendered two more runs in the third inning during a FSC rally and one more in the fourth as he threw 85 pitches on the night.

In the meantime, the Sailfish bats were quieted by Mocs starting pitcher Jarrod Cande who was perfect in his five innings of work. Of his 15 recorded outs, eight were via strikeout as he was able to pitch aggressively and Sailfish batters struggled to catch up to his fastball all night long. Dentons replacement Jamil Vanheyningen was only able to last one-third of an innings as Teeter started a FSC rally by taking a two-strike pitch out to right field for his second homerun on the night. The Sailfish defense was unable to help its pitchers out of the jam as two errors led to five Moccasin runs in the sixth inning. 

The next three Sailfish members out of the bullpen looked impressive as Drew Holweger went two innings in his PBA debut striking out four and allowing just one hit. Jake Sciarrotta and Matt Leslie threw the final two innings allowing a combined three baserunners while striking out three. The Sailfish bats were kept under wraps by FSC pitching until the seventh inning when Ramon Machado and Trenton Alley were brought home by a Jake Roper double after they had each singled off Mocs reliever Collin Camarigg. 

The Mocs were able to put together 11 runs on 11 hits on the night while the Sailfish were held to just two runs on their five hits. Jarrod Cande was the winning pitcher of record while Christian Denton took the loss for PBA. Robert Fabelo had the best night at the plate for the 'Fish, as he was 2-for-3 with a double.

The Sailfish will have their second and third chances of the season against the Mocs this Sunday when they will head to Lakeland to face Florida Southern with game one of the doubleheader scheduled to begin at 2 pm.