DELAND, FL — A few big errors ended up hurting the Sanford River Rats too much as the team fell to the DeLand Suns 6-3 on Monday afternoon at Melching Field.

The mistakes started in the third inning which broke the tie early on. With Suns baserunners Robert Bell (Bethune-Cookman) and Joe Burke (Kentucky Wesleyan) on first and second respectively, it was an error by Jared Herron (Rollins) that could’ve gone for a double play if Herron could’ve corralled the ball. Instead, the ball rolled under his glove scoring Burke as the Suns added two additional runs later in the inning.

Thomas Broyles (Missouri) added an out-of-character error to the Rats woeful day in the field when he misplayed a fly ball that hit him straight in the glove in center field.

With bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth, Bell lofted a fly ball into center field as Broyles got straight under it. Broyles was focused on throwing out Timothy Dixon (Arkansas-Little Rock) who tagged up from third base. Broyles took his eye off the ball a second too quick and ended up missing the ball allowing the run to score with no outs on the board.

The River Rats were unable to overcome the costly mistakes throughout the game.

“We didn’t make enough routine plays,” Rats head coach Josh Montero commented. “We’re missing balls that you’re not supposed to miss, we’re making pitches that just aren’t good pitches, and we have guys not making plays behind them.”

Despite the errors and mishaps in the field, Beau Bratton (New Orleans) shined in the Rats loss.

Bratton started his productive day from the batter’s box with an RBI single in the top of the fourth inning that drove in Justin Farmer (FIU) for the run. In Bratton’s next at-bat in the top of the sixth, Bratton repeated his success with another RBI single that drove in Jarrod Cande (Florida Southern). Bratton was able to reach base on a ball that nailed him in the back during the top of the eighth inning.

The Sanford River Rats (4-8) will look to clean up their mistakes on Tuesday night as they wrap up the two-game series against the DeLand Suns (9-3) at Sanford Memorial Stadium.

Zach Miles (University of Georgia)