WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Junior pitcher Nick Strezo (San Mateo, Calif./Hillsdale) gave up just one unearned run in a nine-inning complete-game effort to lift the Macalester College baseball team to an 8-1 victory over Knox College at the RussMatt Central Florida Tournament Wednesday afternoon at Chain of Lakes Park. The Scots are now 8-5 overall and 4-1 in Florida, while the Prairie Fire drops to 1-8.

Macalester set the tone with three runs in the bottom of the first inning for a 3-0 lead. Junior infielder Holden Peacock (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid School) walked, stole second and third, then scored on an error. Senior outfielder Raymond McCaskey (Colorado Springs, Colo./Manitou Springs) and first year outfielder John McMurray (Washington, D.C./Sidwell Friends) also scored runs in the first. McMurray singled home Peacock in the second for a 4-0 lead, and sophomore outfielder Tristan Lander (West Chester, Pa./B. Reed Henderson) hit a sacrifice fly to plate senior infielder Tristan Jones (Fairfield, Conn./Greens Farms Academy) to put the Scots up, 5-0.

After Knox scored its only run of the game in the top of the fifth, Lander came home on a double-steal to make the score 6-1 Macalester. Then in the sixth, Peacock doubled home senior Stephen Paulsen (Middleton, Wis./Middleton), and Lander drove in Peacock with a single for an 8-1 advantage. Peacock scored three runs and had a double, a walk and a run batted in. McMurray and Lander collected a pair of hits apiece, with Lander scoring twice and recording two RBIs.

Strezo did the rest, scattering eight hits and an unearned run while fanning two without a walk in nine innings of work to earn his first victory as a Scot.

Macalester continues play at the RussMatt Tournament with a game against Amherst on Thursday, March 19. The first pitch is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Eastern at Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, Fla.