FAYETTE, Mo.—Southeastern was dominant in every phase in their 15-1 win over Kansas Wesleyan on Wednesday to advance to the championship game of the Fayette Bracket on Thursday at 10 a.m. Eastern.
At the plate,
Adonys Herrera and
Stephen Cullen each homered twice. Herrera finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs.
Four Southeastern pitchers combined to hold Kansas Wesleyan to just one run and three total hits. The Coyotes came into the game second in the NAIA in homers behind Southeastern with 132, sixth in slugging percentage at .610, and 11
th in hits with 598.
"The pitching staff did a really good job today shutting down an offense as good as they are," said coach
Adrian Dinkel. "Going out there and putting up zeros helped the offense settled in a bit."
Herrera gave the Fire a 2-0 lead with his homer in the first, then
Pablo Lanzarote and Cullen hit back-to-back homers to start the second. The Fire broke the game open with a nine-run third, sending 12 batters to the plate. A throwing error on a double steal allowed
Isaac Nunez to score, then an RBI single by
Gary Lora made it 6-0.
Nunez finished 4-for-5 with three runs scored.
"I think we finally settled in as a group and got some of the early jitters out of the way," said Nunez. "Guys are locked in and seeing the ball well right now."
Jose Marcano picked up an RBI on a bases-loaded single to right.
Josh Pigozzo brought in two more in the next at bat with a single to left. Nunez added an RBI on his second hit of the inning. Herrera's three-run blast, his 12
th of the season made it 13-0 heading into the fourth.
"We looked better at the plate today," said Dinkel. "We had some good approaches and delivered some barrels early in the game."
Darien Smith started the game and allowed just one run on a solo homer in the fourth in 3.1 innings of work, striking out four.
David Mata picked up his fourth win of the season going 2.2 shutout innings, allowing just one hit to the nine he faced.
"I just wanted to get ahead in counts, I knew we were ahead so I was trying to save pitchers going into tomorrow," said Mata. "It's always good to get deeper into games and let our offense work."
JJ Sanchez worked a clean seventh, and
Edward Surinach allowed just one walk in two innings of work.
"We put ourselves in a good position but have a long way to go but we'll continue to fight and see what we're made of," said Dinkel.
