Baseball Looks for SUN Tournament Three-Peat

LAKELAND, Fla.- Southeastern baseball will begin their quest for their third consecutive Sun Conference Tournament Championship this weekend as they head to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Fla. as the top seed.
 
The Fire will participate in the first game of the tournament as they take on the sixth-seeded Florida Memorial Lions on Thursday at 11 a.m.
 
Southeastern has sat at the top of the SUN and the NAIA for the entirety of the season, posting a hard-to-believe record of 47-3 and conference record of 19-2.
 
Isaac Nunez sits at the top of multiple offensive categories in the SUN including batting average (.444), runs scored (66), and hits (79). The Fire have continued their legacy as a power-hitting team, holding five of the top six spots in the conference for home runs. Chayce Bryant has hit a conference-high 18 long balls while Stephen Cullen sits one behind and leads the conference in slugging percentage (.805) and OPS (1.257).
 
Three different arms have dominated the conference for the Fire including Danny Batcher who ranks first in opponent batting average (.169) and second in ERA (3.08). Darien Smith ranks second in opponent batting average at .210 and sits tied for the conference-high in wins with 10. Smith also leads the conference in strikeouts with 100 while the Fire's Robb Adams sits second in strikeouts with 87.
 
The Lions of Florida Memorial come into the tournament as the six-seed with an 18-22 overall record and 8-13 conference record. Collectively, the Lions have posted a .266 batting average and 7.30 ERA, both of which sit at the bottom of the SUN.
 
In conference play, Allan Berrios leads the offense with a .338 average, 25 hits, five doubles, and an on-base percentage of .443. Max Charnin has shouldered most of the innings in conference play, going 39.1 innings and holds a 3.89 ERA and .261 opponent batting average.
 
The Fire and the Lions met for a three-game conference series two weekends ago in Lakeland where the Fire swept the series with two run-rule wins. The last time the Lions defeated the Fire was in May of 2018 to eliminate them from the conference tournament. That was the last game the 2018 squad dropped in route to their first National Championship in program history.
 
With a win in game one, the Fire will play on Friday at 2:30 p.m. against the loser of St. Thomas and Webber International.
 
The Bobcats of St. Thomas (27-22, 12-9 SUN) come into the tournament as the three-seed while the Warriors of Webber (37-13, 12-9 SUN) hold the four-seed.
 
St. Thomas is responsible for half of the Fire's SUN losses this season after besting the top team in the NAIA in Miami Gardens by a score of 5-4 in game one of the series.
 
The Fire swept the No. 10 ranked Warriors at home earlier this season.
 
Entering the tournament as the two-seed, the No. 18 nationally ranked Ave Maria Gyrenes (33-14, 13-8 SUN) were responsible for the other half of the Fire's SUN losses, taking game two of the series 6-5 in Ave Maria.
 
Keiser University will represent the fifth seed after concluding the season with a 26-21 overall record and 9-12 SUN record. The Seahawks sit just behind the Fire in offense with a .315 collective batting average and sit third in the conference in staff ERA at 5.70.
 
Southeastern swept the Seahawks earlier in the year but not without a fight as the Fire would come out on top of a 13-12 game three.
 
With a win on Friday, the Fire would advance to an 11 a.m. contest on Saturday, one win away from the championship game on Sunday at 12 p.m.