WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Southeastern had to win twice on Sunday to record its third consecutive Sun Conference Tournament title, beating Webber International 12-3 and 19-4 to hoist the trophy at the end of the day.
"We challenged our hitters to have a better approach today," said coach
Adrian Dinkel. "We needed to narrow our approaches and narrow our zones and have more quality at bats. Our guys took the challenge and showed they could do it."
Southeastern scored 12 straight runs after giving up an RBI single in the third to fall behind 1-0 in the first game of the day.
Isaac Nunez picked up an RBI single in the bottom of the inning and hit a two-run homer in the fifth to put the Fire up 4-1. In between,
Stephen Cullen picked up an RBI single to center field.
"We just wanted to pass the bat and chip away and stay in our approaches and not get too big and hit home runs," said Cullen. "Everyone wants to get that big swing in but we just dialed it in and were good."
The Fire ran away with the game in the sixth with eight runs on eight hits and benefited from an error.
Jose Marcano picked up a pair of RBIs with a single to center.
Nick Winkelmeyer scored on an error, then
Gary Lora brought home a run with his second hit of the day, a single to center.
Lora finished the game 4-for-5 with two runs scored.
An infield single by
Chayce Bryant made it 9-1 and a bases-loaded walk to Cullen put the Fire up nine. Winkelmeyer picked up a pair of RBIs in his second at bat of the inning with a single to left.
On the mound,
JJ Sanchez struck out nearly half of the batters he faced registering eight over four innings of work.
David Mata came out of the bullpen to work five innings, striking out six and allowing two earned on seven hits to earn his third win of the year.
The Fire pitchers combined to strand 14 Webber baserunners.
Danny Batcher got the Fire a quality start in the winner-take-all game, going five shutout innings with three strikeouts. Batcher moved to 8-0 on the year after allowing just five hits and three walks to the 24 batters he faced.
At the plate Southeastern continued mashing the ball, racking up 22 hits and leading 14-0 heading to the bottom of the sixth.
A five-run third inning, highlighted by a three-run homer by
Pablo Lanzarote helped break the game open. The Fire added four more in the fourth with
Adonys Herrera doubling home two for his third RBI of the contest.
Lora was 4-for-7 in the second contest with three runs scored and an RBI.
Josh Pigozzo had two doubles during his 3-for-5 showing with an RBI and three runs scored. Lanzarote was 3-for-4 with four RBIs.
