LAKELAND, Fla.—The Fire pitching staff put together its best day on the mound thus far and the bats did their part to help Southeastern complete a four-game sweep of Indiana Wesleyan, winning 13-3 in eight innings and 9-2 in seven innings.
In Game 1,
Zach Rice struck out five in five shutout innings, allowing just three hits to earn the win.
Brenden Heiss struck out three of the four hitters he faced and
Jayden Hartle followed in the final two innings, striking out two more and allowing two earned on three hits.
Nick Bottari got the Fire on the board in the bottom of the first with an RBI double to right and was followed by a bases loaded walk to score Bottari.
In the fifth, the Fire got two more on an RBI fielder's choice by
Carter Bridge and a sacrifice fly by
Thomas Broyles to push the lead to 4-0.
After a solo home run by the Wildcats in the top of the sixth,
Colton Onstott got the Fire started to a six-run sixth with a two-run single to left. An error led to the third run of the inning and another sacrifice fly by Broyles brought in the fourth.
Shamir Morales added two more with a double to right to give the Fire a nine-run lead.
A two-run homer in the seventh by IWU in the seventh cut the deficit to seven, but the Fire answered with three in the eighth to end the game.
Sam Faith drove in a run with a single to left and
Jose Marcano doubled to left to bring in the final two runs.
Marcano had a team-best three hits in the game.
The Wildcats started Game 2 with a solo homer to right to get on the board first, but Marcano hit a two-run homer in the third to give SEU the lead. Less than 24 hours after his walk-off home run to win the first game yesterday, Bottari hit a solo shot to right to make it 3-1.
An RBI double to right by Indiana Wesleyan got it back within a run, but the Fire blew up in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI single by Onstott, and a three-run double to left by
Pedro Castellano. The Fire took an 8-2 lead on a throwing error, then added a run on an RBI single by
Sam Faith.
In the second game, the Fire pitching staff combined for 11 strikeouts and no walks.
Christian Camacho picked up the win, tossing five innings with six strikeouts. Camacho allowed two earned on six hits.
Damien Torres struck out two of the three he faced in a scoreless inning in relief, and
D.J. Roberts struck out three of the four batters he faced in a scoreless relief inning.
Southeastern begins Sun Conference play next Friday with a three-game series against Thomas.
