LAKELAND, Fla.—Senior Day serves as a way to honor the contributions of a player to the program. Ceremonies are typically held before one of the final home games of the season.
Senior Day for the 47-3 Fire baseball team had celebrations throughout the game for the graduating players during a 12-2 win over Thomas in eight innings.
That group was 8-for-18 at the plate and struck out three of the five they faced on the mound over 1.2 scoreless innings.
"It was a special Senior Day," said coach
Adrian Dinkel. "You got to see guys go out there and have an opportunity to do it one last time and do it at a high level. I think if we could have written it up at the beginning of the year, that's how we would have wanted it to go."
Stephen Cullen highlighted that group, going 3-for-5 with six RBIs and two runs scored in his final game at Ted A. Broer Stadium. His bases-loaded double in the bottom of the first put the Fire up 3-1 and added a two-run homer to right in the bottom of the fifth to make it 8-1. His two-out RBI single in the eighth gave
Nick Winkelmeyer a chance to end the game via run rule, which he did with an RBI single to left.
Jose Marcano added a 2-for-3 day at the plate, bringing home Cullen with his RBI single in the first.
Pablo Lanzarote,
Michael Haydak, and
Adrian Mella each added a hit on Senior Day.
Darien Smith improved to 10-1 on the season working 1.1 scoreless in relief of
JJ Sanchez, who started and struck out five over 3.2 innings of work.
David Mata worked a scoreless seventh, striking out two of the three he faced, and
JC Gilmore picked up a strikeout and a groundout in the eighth.
"I thought our pitching staff did a really good job of just attacking the zone this weekend," said Dinkel. "The adjustments we made offensively were good as well, but the biggest point was the great job our pitching staff did."
Gary Lora added a 2-for-5 showing at the plate with a run scored.
