Eric Cox was a tremendous athlete. I had the chance to cover him playing three sports, basketball, baseball and football. While Cox was dominate on the mound in this game, baseball was not his best sport, in my opinion.

Thomas Gemkow
Sports Correspondent

Led by Eric Cox and his stellar pitching performance, and a plethora of errors, the Dunnellon High school Tigers downed the Ocala West Port Wolfpack 13-3 Friday night at Dunnellon.

Cox, who went four innings, gave up 5 hits and allowed only three runs for his first victory. Cox also did his part at the plate going 2-3 with an RBI.

“This wasn’t my best game tonight,” said Cox who is 1-0 on the mound this year with 2 saves.

West Port pitcher Bobby Kissane did not fair as well as his counter part. Kissane, who was starting in his first varsity game, walked five of the first six batters he faced and gave up two runs in 1/3 of an inning.  James Holley came on in relief and got Gus Glancy to ground into a double play.

The Wolfpack stormed back in the top of the second inning. JR Worthington hit and RBI single to right field, cutting the deficit to 2-1. Worthington would score on a sacrifice from David Hawn, tying the score at 2-2, but that is as close as West Port would get all night.

“I think they did excellent tonight,” said Dunnellon interim coach Joe Buccheri. “It is tough to start a program from scratch like that. West Port has an excellent coaching staff and should be very competitive in the coming seasons.”

West Port, a second year school, has a roster comprised of just sophomores and freshman committed 9 errors on the night.

The floodgates opened for Dunnellon in the second inning where arrant fielding by the Wolfpack combined with back-to-back doubles from Jarod Harder and Matt Glancy gave Dunnellon a 6-2 advantage.

Harder went 2-3 with 3 RBI’s to pace the Tigers offensively.

“We are going to have to work harder to be able to compete with the Crystal River and Hernando teams in our district,” said Buccheri, who is filling in for head coach Mike Payne. Payne, who contracted eastern equine encephalitis virus, a rare disease that affects the central nervous system, has been in a coma since early August. “There is a lot of love in our program this year. Our prayers are with coach Payne every night, and we are just waiting for the day he is going to wake up and ask us what month it is”

With the win, Dunnellon improves to 4-0 on the season, while West Port drops to 1-4.