LAKELAND, Fla.—With a pair of wins over Edward Waters on Tuesday, the Fire baseball team became the first team in the NAIA to reach the 30-win mark this season.
On campus for the first time this season, the Fire picked up 8-1 and 9-2 wins over the Tigers to improve to 30-3.
Jadan Garcia's solo home run in the bottom of the fourth in the first game broke a 1-1 tie, and an RBI single by
Marcus Guzman gave the Fire a 3-1 lead.
Relief pitcher
Oscar Sandoval wouldn't need any more help than that, keeping the Tigers scoreless over 3.1 innings, giving up just two hits and two walks to earn his second win of the year.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Fire bats broke free for four runs on four hits to put the game out of reach. Singles by
Alex Stephens and
Mike D'Acunti and a walk to
Derek Martin loaded the bases for Garcia, who singled up the middle. An RBI single by
Danny Acevedo made it 5-1 Fire, and it became 6-1 on an RBI groundout by
De'John Suber.
The fourth run scored on a throwing error.
The game's final run came off the bat of D'Acunti, clearing the right field wall for his seventh homer of the year.
Marcus Guzman and D'Acunti were both 2-for-2, and Garcia was 2-for-3.
Pitcher
Corey Stump set the tone in the second game, striking out five of the 15 batters he faced, working four shutout innings for his second win of the year.
It looked like the Tigers would strike first in the top of the second with two runners on and one out. Carlos Cabrera tried to score from second on a ball hit to right field by Christian Montesinos, but was thrown out at the plate by
Kainalu Pitoy. Stump got the following hitter to pop out to second to end the inning.
Suber's RBI single in the bottom of the second scored Guzman to give the Fire a 1-0 lead. Suber scored on a groundout by
Luis Diaz to put the Fire up two.
Guzman made it 3-0 on a double off the left-centerfield wall, scoring
Gerald Ceballos.
EWC threatened again in the sixth, loading the bases with one out, but
John Jaeger picked up the final two outs, allowing one run to score on an infield single. For his efforts, the senior earned his fourth save of the year.
The Fire picked up some breathing room in the sixth, starting the inning with a walk to Suber, then pinch hit singles by Martin and Acevedo to load the bases. Walks to Diaz and Garcia made it 5-1, then Ceballos put all doubts of a comeback on ice with a grand slam to right for his 10
th homer of the year.
Suber finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI. Guzman was 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored.
Southeastern returns to conference play on Friday at Ave Maria.
