LAKELAND, Fla.—The Fire overcame a six-run deficit and pitched a combined one-hit shutout during a doubleheader sweep of Florida National Wednesday afternoon.
Southeastern scored seven unanswered in the first game to win 7-6 in eight innings, then won 18-0 in the second contest to improve to 40-3 on the season.
The Fire trailed 6-0 after the third inning of the first game with five of those runs coming in the third when the Conquistadors (5-36) hit a pair of home runs.
Gary Lora's 13
th home run of the season came in the bottom of the sixth to get the Fire offense on track.
Brian Fuentes hit a three-run homer in the fifth to get the Fire within two for his team-leading 16
th of the season in the fifth. Three batters later
Stephen Cullen sent one over the left field fence to tie the game.
In the eighth,
Thomas Broyles hit a ball to the left field wall to score
Garrett Sheffield from second base to end the game.
Broyles finished the game 2-for-3.
Ronnie Voacolo earned his second win of the season, throwing the final 2.2 innings allowing one hit, one walk, and struck out five of the 10 batters he faced.
Six different pitchers combined to work the second game and limited Florida National to four baserunners the entire game.
Alex Munroe earned the win, throwing two perfect innings and was one pitch away from an immaculate first inning with three strikeouts on 10 pitches. Juan Pimental and
John Jones also threw perfect innings in relief.
The offense was firing on all cylinders with 18 hits in 35 at bats.
Jose Marcano got the scoring started with a two-out RBI single in the second. The Fire tacked on five in the third with an RBI double by Fuentes, an RBI single by
Isaac Nunez, and Cullen's second homer of the day which was a three-run shot to center to put SEU up 6-0.
Lora drove in a run in the fourth with a double to left, and an RBI groundout by
Francisco Thomas made it 8-0.
Marcano drove in another in the fifth with a double to left, then scored on
Jose Ortiz's RBI single to center field.
Brandon Dorsey's first home run of the season made it 12-0 after five.
Six more scored in the final at bat in the sixth with Marcano picking up his third RBI of the game on a sacrifice fly. Ortiz had his second driven in with a single to right field to score
Enrique Porchas. Sheffield picked up an RBI double to make it 15-0 and Dorsey brought him home with an RBI single.
Lora's second home run of the day was a no-doubter on the first pitch he saw for a two-run blast.
Abdel Guadalupe, Ortiz, Fuentes, Dorsey, and Marcano all finished the game 2-for-2. Lora was 2-for-5 with three RBIs. Cullen and Dorsey also had three RBIs each.
The Fire return to Sun Conference play on Friday with a doubleheader at Florida Memorial starting at 11 a.m.
