LAKELAND, Fla.—The Fire have won eight straight after their lone loss of the season with six of those games coming in a pair of Sun Conference weekend series sweeps to improve to 33-1 on the season.
Southeastern will complete a six-game road trip this weekend when it heads to Ave Maria for another three-game conference series.
The Fire picked up 5-2, 7-0, and 8-6 wins last week against Warner to improve to 6-0 in league play and are the only team currently unbeaten in Sun Conference play. First baseman
Gary Lora is hitting .545 against conference opponents this year with a pair of homers and six RBIs.
Stephen Cullen and
Chayce Bryant have added eight hits in conference play.
On the mound,
Darien Smith is 2-0 with a 1.38 conference ERA with 24 strikeouts in 13 innings. Out of the bullpen,
David Mata has three scoreless innings, and
Reece Wissinger recorded two saves with 11 strikeouts over five innings.
The Gyrenes come into the series with the second best overall win percentage in the league at .774 posting a 24-7 record. They are 8-1 in conference play, dropping a one-run game to Florida Memorial but have won five-straight since. This includes a three-game sweep of No. 18 St. Thomas, winning Saturday's doubleheader games by 10 and six.
Tynan Shahidi leads the offense, riding a four-game multi-hit streak with a .372 season average and a team-best 39 RBIs. David Leonardi leads the team with 10 home runs and has added nine doubles. Cameron Horner leads the pitching staff with an 8-1 record with the lone loss coming in February's non-conference game at Southeastern. In 51 innings of work, Horner has struck out 56 and has held opponents to a .207 average against.
Friday's game will start at 2 p.m. and Saturday's doubleheader will start at noon.
