LAKELAND, Fla.—The No. 4 Southeastern University baseball team capped off its season-opening series with a split of their doubleheader against No. 5 Georgia Gwinnett, taking the series 2-1. The Fire dropped the first game 9-8 before coming back to win the second game 15-2. Transfer senior
Pedro Castellano powered the Fire to victory with two homerun's and four RBI's between the two games.
Castellano talked about his approach at the plate after the game, "I'm just doing my thing, quick hands, I'm not thinking to go yard every time. My approach every time is just up the middle and it worked out tonight and I'm grateful for that."
Game 1: Starting pitcher Brendan Heiss struggled with his command early as he walked two batters, threw two wild pitches, and hit two batters. Heiss lasted just an inning and a third and left the game after giving up two runs. Senior
Jayden Hartle relieved Heiss and gave the Fire some length, throwing 2.2 innings pitched, but gave up seven runs total due to two homerun's.
Southeastern found themselves trailing 9-1 after four innings of play but managed to slowly rally back. They responded with two runs in each of the next three innings to narrow the gap. Senior
Nick Bottari smacked his first homerun of the year in the fifth to give the Fire some life. Castellano followed suit two innings later, driving a ball over the right field fence to bring Southeastern within two. Junior
Luis Cabrera cut the deficit to one with his homerun in the eighth, but the Fire couldn't add anymore and dropped the first game 9-8.
Game 2: Southeastern flipped the script on Georgia Gwinnett in the second game, getting out to an 8-2 lead after four innings. Starting pitcher
Brayan Garcia only pitched an inning, failing to get out of the second. He left after giving up two earned runs on one hit, four walks, and one hit by pitch. Junior
Ronnie Voacolo couldn't be touched in relief, pitching four scoreless innings giving up one hit while striking out eight.
A five-run third inning gave Southeastern a lead they wouldn't let go of. Castellano started things off with his second homerun of the day and senior
Carter Bridge added a three-run dinger later in the inning. Southeastern tacked on six more runs in the fifth inning, three of which were walked in by the Grizzlies pitching staff. An RBI double in the sixth by catcher
Benito Varela gave the Fire a 15-2 lead that ended up being the final score.
Head Coach
Adrian Dinkel commented on his team's ability to bounce back in game two of the doubleheader, "I thought we competed. I'm proud of the way our guys came out of the bullpen and put zeroes up on the board. Anytime you can take two out of three against a team like that, you're going to take it. We did a good job battling and finding ways to draw walks and some other things when we weren't swinging it well."
Southeastern takes the field again on Friday, February 7
th at 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm as they host a double-header against Grand View University.
