LAKELAND, Fla. — Top-seeded Southeastern survived a late push from fourth-seeded Faulkner on Monday night, holding on for an 8-7 victory in Game Two of the NAIA Opening Round Lakeland Bracket at Ted A. Broer Stadium. The win marked Southeastern's 22nd consecutive Opening Round victory and improved the Fire to 40-15 overall.
SEU will face No. 3 seed British Columbia in the bracket semifinal on Tuesday at 2 p.m. Times for Tuesday's games were adjusted due to the potential for weather later in the evening.
The Fire never trailed in the contest, building an early four-run advantage before weathering multiple Faulkner rallies across the middle innings. Southeastern scored eight runs on 10 hits while taking advantage of four Eagle errors. Faulkner finished with 14 hits in the loss.
Southeastern struck first in the opening inning after a pair of Faulkner throwing miscues helped produce two unearned runs.
Jace Essig scored on a throwing error by the catcher following a
Cade Parry stolen base, and
Cooper Ciesielski later crossed the plate on another error to give the Fire an early 2-0 lead.
The Fire extended the margin to 4-0 in the second inning.
Nathanial Hopkins singled and later scored on an RBI groundout from
Armani Cozza after a wild pitch plated
Cort Pryor earlier in the frame.
Faulkner answered with a three-run third inning, stringing together four hits to cut the deficit to 4-3. Carter Schellsmidt delivered an RBI single before Dariel Colón added a run-scoring hit to right center.
After the Eagles pulled within one again in the fifth on an RBI single from Anthony Bassett Torres, Southeastern responded with its biggest offensive inning of the night.
Cozza opened the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run to center field, restoring a two-run cushion. Later in the inning,
Charlie Collins lined an RBI single to left,
Victor Esquivel Perez added a sacrifice RBI, and another Faulkner error allowed Collins to score and push the lead to 8-4.
Faulkner continued to pressure the Fire offense over the final four innings. Jimmy Perez delivered a two-run single in the sixth to trim the margin to 8-6, and Jordan Carter doubled home another run in the seventh to make it a one-run game.
The Southeastern bullpen managed to close the door from there.
Parker Lambeth earned the victory after throwing three innings in relief, allowing three runs while striking out one.
Hayden Givens-Craig worked through the seventh and eighth innings before
Brody McMullen collected the save with a scoreless ninth inning that included two strikeouts.
Cozza paced the Fire offense, finishing 2-for-4 with a home run, double, two RBIs, and a stolen base. Collins added two hits and an RBI while Ciesielski posted a pair of hits and scored twice.
