LEWISTON, Idaho—Resiliency has been the name of the game in the postseason for the Southeastern baseball team.
In a back-and-forth affair, the Fire (56-3) had the final say by plating four in the ninth off a pair of home runs to guarantee a spot among the last four teams in the tournament with an 8-4 win over LSU Shreveport Monday night at the Avista NAIA World Series.
With the game tied at four heading to the ninth,
Jose Marcano led off the inning with his sixth homer of the season into the left field bleachers to put the Fire up a run.
"I went through my approach and was looking for a fastball away and reacted to it when I got it," said Marcano.
The energy was contagious as
Thomas Broyles followed with a one-out single then
Abdel Guadalupe was hit by a pitch to set up
Brian Fuentes who blasted a three-run shot to right for his team-leading 21
st homer of the season to ice the game.
"We just believe in each other," said Fuentes. "We are family and in the tough times, anybody can do their job."
In nine postseason games, the Fire have 21 runs in the seventh inning or later.
"We don't want to be waiting until later to make those adjustments, but they do," said coach
Adrian Dinkel. "It's a sign of a good player and a good team to be able to make those adjustments and win games."
Ronnie Voacolo improved to 4-0, working an inning and two-thirds scoreless with two strikeouts to the five batters he faced.
Drew Gillespie started on the mound and allowed three earned runs on four hits with five strikeouts and five walks.
Alex Munroe came on in the sixth and worked two innings, giving up one run on two hits with three strikeouts.
"We expect him to go out there and pound the zone and compete and that's what he did," said Dinkel of Gillespie. "Ronnie and Alex have done a great job. Ronnie is going out there with a lot of confidence and pounding the zone."
Broyles got the scoring started in the third with a two-run single to center field. The Pilots (52-7) got on the board in the fifth with an RBI single, then took the lead on a two-out, two-run single through the left side.
Stephen Cullen got the Fire the lead back in the sixth with his no-doubt two-run homer into the left field stands. The Pilots were able to get a solo homer in the eighth to tie it.
Broyles and Marcano had two hits each, as did
Sam Faith who now has 18 hits this postseason.
The Fire will take on either Faulkner or Lewis-Clark State on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Pacific.
