LAKELAND, Fla.—After sweeping Thomas University to improve to 10-0 on the season last week, the Southeastern University baseball team hosts a doubleheader against Edward Waters College before another Sun Conference series against the Warner Royals. SEU hosts EWC on Tuesday at 2:00 and 5:00 pm and play Warner on Friday at 6:00 pm before a doubleheader on Saturday that starts at 12:00 pm.
The Fire outscored the Night Hawks 33-4 in their first Sun Conference series of the season.
Drew Gillespie tossed eight shutout innings with eight strikeouts in the 8-0 win in game one on Thursday. SEU's bats led the way in the doubleheader on Friday as the Fire slugged ten home runs between the two games with
Nick Bottari hitting two in game one and
Sam Faith clubbing three in the series finale.
Gillespie has yet to allow a run in 15.1 innings of work and has struck out 20 batters while walking just four. Fellow transfer
Christian Camacho has also impressed on the mound, striking out a team-high 21 batters while giving up five earned runs.
Faith and Bottari, along with
Pedro Castellano,
Colton Onstott, and
Thomas Broyles, have led the offensive surge for the Fire out of the gate. The five have combined to hit 16 home runs and 62 RBIs and each have a batting average above .330.
As a team the Fire are ranked fourth in the NAIA in hits (113), runs scored (106), and RBIs (92). Southeastern has also stolen the eighth most bases with 22. In the field, the Fire boast the 16
th-best fielding percentage at .969.
SEU welcomes an Edward Waters squad that has won just one of their first nine games of the season, the win coming against Warner University. Senior infielder Marcus Judd leads the team with ten hits and is hitting .316 so far this season, while Damani Thomas is the power threat for the Tigers with a team high two home runs and four RBIs. Julio Flores leads EWC on the mound with 15 strikeouts.
The Fire are 21-2 all-time against Edward Waters and won the last matchup 13-5. Castellano and
Blake Buckman both homered and tallied two RBIs in the win.
The Warner Royals will carry a 5-2 record when the host the Fire later this week. The Royals boast the 12
th-best team ERA of 2.42 and are led by Andy Yarbrough who has a 3.65 ERA through 12.1 innings pitched while striking out 11 batters. Josh Strickland leads the team with 13 hits including one double. Brian Spradlin is the team leader in RBIs with ten.
The Fire are 28-10-1 all-time in matchups with the Royals and won the most recent meeting 16-10. Bottari and
Carter Bridge were key contributors in the win as they combined for eight RBIs.
To keep up with all the action this week follow @SEUFireBaseball on Twitter and Instagram!
