LAKELAND, Fla. - For baseball fans, today's game between the Fire and the Fighting Saints certainly did not disappoint. The contest was nip-and-tuck throughout its entirety. But, in the bottom half of the ninth inning, the Fire had an opportunity to win the game and they did just that with a missile off the bat of Angel Garced, propelling Southeastern to a 9-8 victory.
With one out, St. Francis struck first after Kyle Burton doubled down the right field line. Nick Fleischauer singled to center field to score Burton and give the Fighting Saints a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the first inning, the ballgame was tied up after a towering drive off the bat of Southeastern's Luis Diaz landed over the left field wall.
Saint Francis answered back with a three run second inning and took a 4-1 lead.
Southeastern was able to manufacture a run in the bottom of the third due to back-to-back doubles by Garced and Diaz, which allowed the Fire to cut the lead to 4-2.
Immediately, however, the Fighting Saints added another run in the top half of the fourth when Travis Schoonover's one out, infield single scored Brandon Lisak-Talley who was pinch running for Dan Darling, moving the score to 5-2. In the top of the fifth inning, Saint Francis tallied a pair of runs again, bringing the score to 7-2.
While it began to look grim for the Fire, they never backed down. Gerald Ceballos gave the Fire life in the bottom of the fifth when he hit a solo homer over the left field wall to put Southeastern within striking distance.
The sixth inning proved pivotal for the Fire when Mike D'Acunti led off the inning with a moon shot over the right field wall. The Fire scored one more run when a sacrifice fly from Jaden Garcia scored Derek Martin, bringing the score within two; 7-5 Fighting Saints.
Ceballos homered once more to lead off the bottom of the seventh, putting the Fire down only by one run.
Southeastern took an 8-7 lead in the eighth inning after creating two more runs.
Remarkably in the top of the ninth with two outs, the Fighting Saints rallied to knot the game at 8-8 on a big RBI single by Kevin Mampe, setting the Fire up for some late game heroics.
The excitement continued in the bottom half of the ninth when Derek Martin led the inning off with a single. The Fighting Saints proceeded to intentionally walk the bases loaded and then brought in a five-man infield to face Angel Garced. The NAIA Gold Glove second baseman saw a pitch out over home plate and drove it down the left field line to secure the 9-8 win for the Fire.
Southeastern is back in action tomorrow, Wednesday, March 8, when they take on Lawrence Tech University. The first pitch is at 6:00 pm.
