WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.— There will be a new Sun Conference Tournament Champion in 2018 after the Fire fell short to Florida Memorial by a score of 7-2 on Sunday afternoon.
The Fire jumped out to a 1-0 advantage in the bottom of the first thanks to a
Nick Bottari single that brought in
Dominic Anagnos; however, the Lions responded with two in the third as they took their first lead of the night.
Torrence Sumerlin tied the ballgame with a two-out RBI single that scored Bottari in the bottom of the sixth. Sumerlin ended the competition a perfect 3-for-3 with a run driven in, while Bottari added a 3-for-5 performance at the plate with the first-inning RBI. The duo registered six of Southeastern's nine hits and batted in both of SEU's runs.
Even though Southeastern recorded nine hits in the contest, the team had trouble driving in runs, leaving 12 runners on base. The Fire managed to hit just .143 with runners in scoring position compared to Florida Memorial's .417 average in the same situation.
Two-out hitting was the key to the Lions' success against Southeastern. Florida Memorial hit .550 (11-20) and scored all of their seven runs with two gone.
With the score knotted at two in the eighth, FMU scored on a wild pitch, giving the Lions a late lead. Florida Memorial would strike for four insurance runs in the ninth on five hits, all with two outs, as they were able to close out the Fire 7-2.
Yunior Sanchez and Sergio Chil made life difficult for the Fire by combining for seven hits, three runs and five RBIs. Chil, the Lions' DH, had four RBIs alone, two of which broke the game open late.
The defeat marks the first time since the 2012 season that Southeastern lost to Florida Memorial in a baseball game. SEU had won 18 consecutive meetings in the series.
The Fire will wait to see if they receive an at-large bid to the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round.
