Baseball Splits Series With Rio Grande

LAKELAND, FLA.-- After getting swept in a doubleheader the day before, the Southeastern baseball team bounced back in dramatic fashion, besting the Rio Grande University Red Storm by scores of 2-1 and 4-3.

Jace Herrera was dominant in the first game.  The senior was kept at a pitch count and made the most of it; over three shutout innings, he gave up only one hit while striking out four and walking none.

Both offenses were kept quiet until the fifth inning, when the Red Storm (2-6) pushed a run across via sacrifice fly.  The Fire (10-5) answered in the bottom half of the inning when Zach Hessinger drove in Marcus Guzman.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Fire had runners on the corners.  On an Aaron Sheaks steal attempt, Dylan Shockley of the Red Storm threw the ball into center field, easily allowing Hunter Bonner to score from third.

Dylan Jameson (1-0) earned the win after a scoreless inning of relief, and Chris Mattison earned his first save of the year with a scoreless seventh inning.

Andres Cancio was given the ball for the second game, and showed some positive signs.  Over 4.2 innings, the senior gave up two runs on four hits and three strikeouts.  He also walked three.

There was no offense until the third inning until Chris Mattison had other ideas.  The first baseman sent a rocket over the center field fence for a loud two-run homer to give the Fire a 2-0 lead.

The fifth inning is when things started to get dicey.  Cancio gave up two hits to start the frame, and had runners on second and third with no outs.  After striking out the next two batters, Cancio had two strikes on Chris Ford.  Ford foul-tipped the ball into Mike D'Acunti's glove and the home plate umpire called Ford out.  However, the field umpire decided to overrule and say that the ball hit the ground first.  After some confusion and frustration, Ford was allowed to step back in.  The whole incident threw Cancio off his rhythm as he proceeded to walk Ford and the next two batter, walking in a pair of runs to tie the game at two.  Josh Egert came in to get the Fire out of the jam with the game still tied.

Neither team could score for the rest of the seven-inning regulation, so the two teams went to extra innings.  In the eighth, the Red Storm pushed an unearned run across after a pair of defensive mishaps by the Fire as they took a 3-2 lead.

In the bottom of the eighth, Angel Garced led off with a walk.  A Sheaks sacrifice bunt pushed Garced to second, who was then lifted for pinch-runner Christian Arroyo.  Derek Martin followed with a game-tying RBI double to make it 3-3.  After a wild pitch and a walk to Guzman, the Fire had runners on the corners with only one out.  Luis Diaz then proceeded to drive in the game-winning run with a single up the middle as the Fire walked off, 4-3.

Mike Ruppenthal (2-0) earned the victory with three innings of relief.

Sun Conference action starts up for the Fire on Friday, as they'll travel up to Thomasville, Georgia to take on the Thomas University Night Hawks in a three game series.