LAKELAND, Fla.—The Southeastern baseball team ended its four-game slide with a 14-8 win over sixth-ranked Davenport in the first game of today's doubleheader.
The Fire dropped the second game 6-5 in a back-and-forth contest.
All nine starters recorded a hit in the victory, with the Fire scoring in all six at bats, totaling 14 runs on 15 hits.
Angel Garced got things going with an opposite field, three-run homer to right field to put the home team up 4-1 in the bottom of the first.
The junior finished the night 3-for-4 with three runs scored, and had a double.
Southeastern added four more in the bottom of the third, getting an RBI singles from
Sean Anderson and
Derek Martin, and picked up two more on an error.
Davenport came back with four runs of its own in the fourth, but the Fire answered with three of their own, two coming on an RBI double by
Mike D'Acunti, and another on a sacrifice fly by Martin pushing the Fire lead to 12-5.
In his first career start, junior
Josh Egert earned the win, allowing five earned on six hits over four innings of work. He walked three and struck out two to move to 1-0 on the year.
Jonathan Martin pitched two scoreless innings in relief, and
Blaine Reed finished the night, allowing three runs in the seventh.
Davenport scored three runs in the top of the second in Game 2, bouncing back from three straight strikeouts against SEU starter
Nate Harmon in his debut.
A double by Martin got the Fire on the scoreboard for the first time in the bottom of the second with a double down the left field line, scoring
Hunter Bonner.
Chris Mattison's two-run homer in the bottom of the third, his eighth of the year, tied the game at three, then an RBI single by D'Acunti and an error gave SEU a 5-3 lead.
Davenport picked up a run in the sixth, then two more in the seventh to take the lead.
The Fire seventh started promising with an infield single by
Luis Diaz, but was out at third, looking for extra bases following a throwing error. With two outs and the bases empty, Mattison put a charge into a pitch to deep right center, but the ball was caught at the top of the wall to end the game.
Harmon did not factor into the decision, going 5.2 innings, allowing three earned on eight hits with seven strikeouts and two walks.
The Fire return to action on Saturday against Cornerstone for a doubleheader starting at noon.
