The No. 4 ranked Southeastern men's baseball team are 2-1 overall on the season, as they take on the Grand View Vikings for a three-game series starting Friday night.
The Fire begin their 2020 season taking two of three games against No. 5 ranked Georgia Gwinnett. In the first game against Georgia Gwinnett, the Fire rallied behind pitchers,
Bryce Mulcahy and
Ryan Munoz in their 2-1 victory. Junior right-hander, Mulcahy, threw five innings, racking up eight strikeouts and giving up only one run on four hits. Senior pitcher Munoz, shut down Georgia Gwinnett over the next four innings, giving up zero runs for Southeastern and striking out five. Some key at-bats of the night came from senior outfielder,
Zach Cornell who went 2-for-4 while scoring a run and junior first basemen,
Nolan Machibroda who got the game-winning sacrifice fly.
In the first game of Friday's doubleheader against Georgia Gwinnett, Southeastern compiled nine hits in the 9-8 loss. The Fire was off to a rough start in the early innings as they struggled against pitchers Hunter Claudelle and Matt Hunt through the first four innings of the game. Over the next remaining innings of the game, the Fire began to find some life in their bats with home runs from first-baseman
Nick Bottari, catcher
Luis Cabrera, and infielder
Pedro Castellano, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Although the Fire stayed alive with contributions from pitcher
Carlos Soto, who threw five scoreless inning with six strikeouts, they still fell short of victory as pitcher Alex Cook closed out the game for Georgia Gwinnett.
During the second game of Friday's doubleheader, the Fire took the series and defeated Georgia Gwinnett with a 15-2 victory. After giving up two runs in the first inning, Southeastern's pitching did not let up, and quieted the Gwinnett bats throughout the game. Pitchers:
Brayan Garcia,
Ronnie Voacolo and Marco Soto, were dominant for the Fire, and contributed to the team's victory. The bats were on fire in the second game, as the Fire compiled 10 hits and 15 runs. Some key contributors were: centerfielder,
Carter Bridge, who drove in three RBI's and a homer, left-fielder,
Zach Cornell, who amassed three hits, and third-baseman,
Pedro Castellano, who homered, and scored two runs with two RBI's for the Fire.
Castellano was named The Sun Conference Player of the Week.
Some key notes coming into Friday's game is junior outfielder,
Cristian Martin, who leads the team with a .455 batting. He is off to a hot start as he is on a three-game hitting streak, including a slugging percentage of .545 to start the 2020 season. . Southeastern's pitching has been phenomenal as well, entering Friday's game with a 2.88 era, and holding opposing hitters to a mere .211 batting average.
The Grand View Vikings enter the 2020 season unranked, and have not faced Southeastern. The Vikings began the season with a doubleheader sweep against Warner University.
Grand View is coming off a 2019 season, in which they have amassed a 13-22 record, going 10-13 in conference games. Grand View projects to make progress in the new season, with the help of key returners in: starting pitchers, Parker Thode, and Jason MacAlpine, shortstop Tyler Smith, catcher Caleb McDowell, and outfielder Dan Peterson. McDowell was an all-conference player in the 2019 season, compiling a .325 batting average with eight doubles and two home runs.
For the 2019 season, Grand View has compiled a .247 team batting average, and a .952 fielding percentage with a team era of 5.21 in their 35 games.
Friday's game will be a 6:30 p.m. first pitch with Saturday's doubleheader starting at 12 p.m.
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