LAKELAND, Fla.—Southeastern pitchers struck out half of the batters they faced in a 10-3 win over Roosevelt Wednesday night to improve to 21-0 on the year.
This matches the program record for best start to a season since the 2018 team started 21-0.
Evan Hiatt earned his first win of the season striking out five of the six he saw over two innings.
Eston Stull struck out four of the seven he faced over two innings and was followed by
Alex Munroe striking out the first three he faced.
"I thought those guys went out and attacked the zone and were throwing more than one pitch for a strike," said coach
Adrian Dinkel. "We have a lot of competition on the backside of that bullpen. We see a lot of guys that have stepped up that didn't get a lot of innings early that are gathering them now."
Southeastern built a 6-0 lead over that span, getting an RBI single from
Brian Fuentes and a sacrifice fly by
Luis Cabrera in the first. In the second,
Gary Lora drilled a pitch through the left side to score
Thomas Broyles and a throwing error in the third allowed
Sam Faith to come home and make it 4-0.
"(Lora) talked about not trying to do too much and understanding his zone and his approach since he's not going to get a ton to hit, it might be just one pitch and his job is to get on base," said Dinkel.
Abdel Guadalupe led off the fourth with a solo home run to center field for his fifth of the season, and Cabrera drove in his second of the game with a groundout to third to bring in Fuentes.
The Fire committed two errors in the second and gave up a walk to load the bases with two outs. A bases-clearing double got Roosevelt within three, but Cabrera drove in two more in the bottom of the inning with a double to center field. Lora picked up another RBI with a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and a fielding error later that inning brought in another.
Ronnie Voacolo,
Juan Pimentel, and
Jack Wolgast all pitched an inning in relief and allowed a hit each. Voacolo and Pimentel stuck out two with Wolgast picking up one.
Lora was 3-for-3 with two RBIs and a walk. Cabrera was 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Fuentes, Guadalupe, and
Isaac Nunez all had two hits each.
The Fire begin a three-game series on Sunday with a doubleheader against Indiana Tech at 1 p.m.
