LAKELAND, Fla.- Fire baseball swept the Ave Maria Gyrenes in their regular season series, and went on to win their 15th conference game of the year 11-6. The come-from-behind victory moved Southeastern to 36-5 (15-1 SUN) on the year with just two weekends of baseball left.
Ave Maria got the jump on the Fire, putting up five runs in the first two innings, taking advantage of three fielding errors from the Fire. Southeastern was able to plate home one in response, on a
Josh Pigozzo RBI single in the bottom of the first.
Southeastern then began to chip away, starting with a
David Castillo RBI double and a
Cristopher Munoz RBI single. The Fire tallied two more runs on Gyrene errors to cut the deficit to just one run.
The turning point of the game came in the bottom of the fifth inning, where the Fire took their first lead of the day on a grand slam from
Gary Lora, putting the Fire ahead 9-6.
That was all the Fire needed to keep the lead, adding on two more from a pinch hit, two-run homer off the bat of
Alfonso Villalobos.
Castillo had a 3-for-3 day to go along with his RBI, along with Munoz's two hit day, the only two hitters with a multi-hit afternoon.
Nick Gottilla earned himself the win, posting a lights out 4 shutout innings in relief, allowing just three hits and striking out five, with no walks.
The Fire will play next at home on Tuesday, April 16th against New College of Florida, before hosting St. Thomas University in a four-game conference series.
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