AUBURNDALE, Fla. - The Fire took on Davenport University in their first game of four during spring break. With an offensive surge, the Panthers came away with an 8-3 win to mark the Fire with their first loss of the season.
Things look promising for the Fire in the bottom half of the second as they were able to draw first blood. Although Kianalu Pitoy ground into a double-play, he was able to score the runner from third in the form of Mike D'Acunti to give the Fire a 1-0 lead. With two outs in the half inning Angel Garced saw a pitch out over home plate and drove it down the right field line scoring the pinch runner Marcus Stump from third which extended the Fire lead to 2-0.
From there, Davenport southpaw Justin Palmbos settled in and dealt four scoreless innings for the Panthers. During that time, the offense found a rhythm scoring in three consecutive innings.
Back-to-back doubles in the top of the fourth by Oscar Heredia and Brandon Larkin-Guilfoyle cut the Fire lead to 2-1. In the top of the fifth, the Panthers Heredia put a charge into the ball that cleared the right field fence to give Davenport a 3-2 lead.
The Panthers went on to manufacture a pair of runs in the top of the sixth with the help of a double by Andrew Figueroa and sacrifice fly by Brian Sobieski to make it 5-2 Davenport.
Southeastern, although down, showed a bit of fight in the bottom half of the seventh. Luis Diaz extended his hit streak to seven games with an RBI single into left-center to score Marcus Guzman and close the gap to 5-3 Panthers.
Unfortunately, with a two run eighth inning and a solo homer in the ninth by Larkin-Guilfoyle, the Panthers extended their lead to 8-3; an amount that the Fire could not top by the time the final out was made.
Both Gerald Ceballos and Garced had a 2-4 day at the plate to improve their .365 and .295 averages.
The Fire will aim to rebound on Friday, March 3rd when they take on Saint Xavier University at 6:00 p.m.
