Baseball | 2/21/2020 5:49:00 PM
LAKELAND, Fla.—Southeastern held a two-run lead over the Detroit Tigers at two different points during Friday's Spring Training exhibition game, but ultimately fell 5-4.
With the game tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth, Daniel Pinero doubled to center field to score Jake Holton and give the Tigers the win.
In the top half of the inning, the Fire got a leadoff single from
Francisco Soriano on a slow roller to third base, and took second on a passed ball.
Raymond Gonzalez's bunt was lined into the glove of first baseman Frank Schwindel, who was able to double up Soriano at second base.
Luis Cabrera doubled during the next at bat, and advanced to third on a wild pitch, but a groundout to shortstop ended the SEU threat.
No. 4 Southeastern (11-1) got on the board first with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth on a ground ball hit by
Abdel Guadalupe went under the glove of first baseman Brandon Dixon and scored
Pedro Castellano and
Zach Cornell.
The Tigers answered in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run single by Dawel Lugo to tie the game.
In the sixth, the Fire regained the lead when Guadalupe's grounder to shortstop Sergio Alcantara was thrown out of play, scoring Cornell and
Colton Onstott. Again, the Tigers answered getting a two-run double by Schwindel.
The Southeastern pitchers battled the cold and wind, and got out of some tough spots, including in the third when Zach Comins had two on and one out, but got power hitting first baseman Brandon Dixon to strike out and Jorge Bonifacio to pop out to second.
"It was a lot of fun," said Comins, who missed last year's game with an injury. "I thought this was a good opportunity for me and was a little nervous and did pretty well."
Even with Fire pitchers issuing nine walks, and the hitters striking out 15 times, which included five of the six batters Tarik Skubal faced in his two innings of work, SEU made a game of their annual exhibition contest.
"I thought we competed well," said coach
Adrian Dinkel. "I thought with the situation and the type of player they were rolling out there, our guys weren't scared of the competition and thought they held their own and dug deep and played well."
The Fire will resume their Sun Conference weekend series Saturday with a doubleheader against Warner, starting at noon.
