LAKELAND, Fla.—The No. 4 Southeastern University baseball team scored early and often in the 16-7 rout of RV Madonna University. The Fire (18-1) scored three runs in each of the first two innings to give their pitching staff room to work with.
Cristian Martin,
Zach Cornell, and
Carter Bridge paced the Fire, combining to go 12-for-16 at the plate with eight RBIs.
Bridge commented on his effort after the game, "Our lineup is amazing. I knew they were going to throw a lot off-speed, so I changed my approach and tried to take everything to center field and it paid off."
After a scoreless top of the first, Martin led off the bottom half and wasted no time settling in as he blasted a solo home run to right center field on the first pitch he saw.
Nick Bottari tallied a homer of his own when he powered a two-run home run to left field. The second inning saw more offense from Southeastern with Martin doubling in
Sam Faith,
Pedro Castellano driving in Martin, and Cornell singling in Castellano.
Head coach
Adrian Dinkel spoke of his team's approach at the plate, "We saw a lot of pitches early and forced them to get to their bullpen, and we just kept going offensively. We forced a lot of pitches up and got ones we could handle."
Ronnie Voacolo got the start and didn't allow a run through his first four innings of work but struggled with command issues in the fifth. His outing ended after allowing six earned runs, three walks, and six strikeouts.
The Fire answered Madonna's six runs with four of their own with Cornell lacing a double down the left field line that scored Castellano and Martin.
Senior lefty pitcher
Ryan Munoz came out of the bullpen in relief to shut the door on the Crusaders' hopes of a comeback. He tossed 4.1 innings of work, giving up only one run on two hits, six strikeouts and no walks.
The Fire are back in action tomorrow afternoon when they host Spring Arbor University at 12:00 pm.
