Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Fueled by excellent clutch hitting, the No. 3 Southeastern University baseball team took both games of Saturday's doubleheader over the Florida Memorial University Lions to sweep the weekend series. The Fire paced themselves to a 6-3 victory in the opening game before using a big first inning to edge the Lions 9-6 in the second contest. The Fire improved to a perfect 21-0 in Sun Conference play and 12-0 on the road.
The Fire jumped out to an early advantage in game one thanks to the bat of junior infielder
Ivan Nunez. The Miami native recorded an RBI triple in the frame that scored
Dan Valerio and put SEU on the board. RBI doubles by
Keiner Colmenarez and
Marcus Stump tacked on two more for Southeastern in the inning, giving the Fire a 3-0 lead.
Senior right-handed pitcher
Jordan Scott was in peak form in the opening contest. Scott retired 10 of the first 12 Lions he faced, with five of those outs coming via strikeout. The Atlanta, Ga. native fanned four of the last eight he faced to push his punch out game total to nine. His seven-inning performance improved his overall record to 10-1 and lowered his season ERA to 2.22.
In the top of the sixth, Nunez crushed his second triple of the game, this one a shot to left field that brought Valerio and Malone across the plate. Nunez became the first SEU player this season to record a multi-triple game.
Luis Diaz recorded the feat in consecutive contests last season versus Brewton-Parker.
A sacrifice fly by senior utility man
Kainalu Pitoy earned SEU a 6-0 lead after six innings of play.
The Lions attempted a late-inning comeback, bringing two across in the bottom of the eighth and then another in the bottom of the ninth. However, senior righty
Jared Crescentini shut down the FMU rally, tossing a scoreless inning to earn his second save of the season.
Southeastern took advantage of a productive first inning in game two. The Fire plated five runs on three hits and two errors in the top of the first. An RBI triple by Pitoy and double by junior catcher
Torrence Sumerlin highlighted the big frame.
The Lions got one across in the bottom of the second to get on the board. An error in the top of the third allowed SEU to respond and go up 6-1.
Florida Memorial retaliated in the bottom half of the inning, bringing three runs across on four hits to trim the SEU lead down to 6-4.
After junior southpaw
Felix Dieguez retired seven of eight Lions he faced, Florida Memorial broke the silence in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two runs to make it a one-run deficit 7-6.
The Fire quickly created some breathing room in the top of the eighth, scoring two on an RBI single by Malone, as well as a pick-off attempt that allowed Mesa to score.
Senior reliever
Eddie Jimenez was clutch in his late-inning work. The Bethany Okla. native pitched two innings of no-hit baseball, struck out three, and earned his third save of the season.
The Fire now size up No. 5 St. Thomas for a premier Sun Conference showdown. Game one of the series is slated for Friday at 6:30 p.m.
