Box Score FORT MYERS, Fla.—Four defensive miscues hurt the Fire in a 3-1 loss to St. Thomas in their first game in The Sun Conference Tournament.
The defending tourney champions fell behind 2-0 in the top of the second when two fielding errors turned into two unearned runs.
Southeastern (36-18) struggled to get its offense going against Bobcat starting pitcher Marcos Barrios, who worked eight shutout innings to improve to 6-3 on the season. Barrios struck out eight and walked just two, allowing three hits to the 28 batters he faced.
In the third inning, St. Thomas (39-13) made it 3-0 on a two-out solo home run by Paul Chacin.
The Fire threatened briefly in the sixth with runners at first and third after a two out single to center field by Willi Martin, but the inning ended on the next at bat when Josiel Colon grounded out to short.
Martin gave the Fire hope in the bottom of the ninth with a solo home run to left field. Colon then reached on an error to bring the tying run to the plate, but closer Chris Rodriguez coaxed a groundout and fly out from Cody Hoffner and Luis Diaz to earn his 11th save.
Martin finished the day 2-for-4 with an RBI, accounting for half of the team's hits.
The Fire return to action tomorrow at 3 p.m. in the double elimination tournament against Thomas.
