THOMASVILLE, GA.-- No matter what happens, the best teams know that they must find a way to win conference games if they want to make a deep playoff run. Southeastern baseball is off to a good start in Sun Conference play as the team took the first two games against the Thomas University Night Hawks by scores of 9-5 and 10-6, ensuring a series victory. The Fire will go for the sweep Saturday afternoon.
Mike D'Acunti got the offense going for the Fire in the fourth inning, who fell behind 3-1. The catcher slugged a 2-run home run--his third of the season--to tie the game at three.
The Fire scored at least one run in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings as they pulled away from the Night Hawks.
Marcus Guzman went 2-3 with a run scored; eight of the nine starters for Southeastern finished with at least one hit.
Angel Garced stole a pair of bases to bring his season total to three and
Hunter Bonner stole his third base of the year as well.
Jordan Gard picked up the win and is now 2-2 this year. The lefty went 6.2 innings, giving up seven hits, five earned runs,walking three and striking out seven.
Josh Turner pitched 2.1 innings of shutdown relief, as the sidewinder scattered five hits without giving up a run.
In game two, the Fire exploded for 10 runs on their way to a 10-6 victory. The Fire gave
Brandon Goff a five-run lead in the third;
Chris Mattison hit his fifth home run of the year. The junior finished 2-5 with a run scored and an RBI. D'Acunti finished 2-5 with a pair of RBI's and a run scored.
Luis Diaz,
Angel Garced, and
Diego Perez all finished with at least one hit. Garced and Diaz each stole a base.
Brandon Goff went 6.2 innings, giving up six runs (four earned), eight hits, and striking out two.
Mike Ruppenthal picked up the win with scoreless inning of relief to improve to 3-0 on the year.
Josh Egert pitched 1.1 scoreless innings to earn his first save of the year.
The two teams will face off again at noon tomorrow. You can keep up with updates by following @SEUFireBaseball on Twitter.
