Fire Baseball Rallies from Late Deficit to Stave off Elimination

LEWISTON, Idaho—In a win-or-go-home game, the Southeastern University baseball team rallied from a two-run deficit with two outs in the ninth to continue its stay in the NAIA World Series.
Abdel Guadalupe’s 17th home run of the season with two outs and a runner on in the ninth sent the game to extra innings, where a sacrifice fly by Dominic Anagnos gave Southeastern a 6-5 win over Indiana Tech.
The Fire advance to another elimination game on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Eastern with the victory.
Southeastern (53-11) had struggled at the plate, flying out 17 times and had trailed by two for the majority of the game. After back-to-back fly outs to start the ninth, Dan Valerio drew a walk to set the stage for Guadalupe, who line a ball over the left field wall on the first pitch he saw.
“I had been struggling a little bit and chasing balls in the dirt,” said Guadalupe. “Coach wanted me to go up there with some confidence and I didn’t want to go home, and I hit a home run and the experience was amazing.”
Indiana Tech (42-16-1) got a pair of two-out baserunners in the bottom of the ninth on a walk and a hit by pitch, but Marc Soto got leading hitter Glen McClain to fly out to end the inning.
Soto worked two hitless frames to earn the win, his fourth of the season.
A one-out single to right field by Manuel Mesa got the Fire a runner at third to set up Anagnos, who lifted a ball to the deepest part of the park in left-center field to let Alec Thomas score the go-ahead run with ease.
Mesa, the reigning NAIA World Series MVP, was 3-for-5.
Soto then sat down the Warriors in order with a pair of pop outs sandwiching a strikeout.
“We were cold all game and didn’t make many in-box adjustments and didn’t do a good job grinding out at bats,” said coach Adrian Dinkel. “Anytime we put Soto on the mound, we know he’s going to do a good job and momentum shifted.”
Down 4-0 in the sixth, Anagnos drove in SEU’s first run of the game with runners on first and second, a ground ball jumped over the shortstop, allowing Thomas to touch home. Ivan Nunez followed with an RBI single to center field, and Noah Strohl’s RBI fielder’s choice brought the Fire within a run.
Indiana Tech struck back in the bottom of the eighth with back-to-back two-out doubles to push the lead back to two. The Warriors tried to bring across another run on a single to left field, but Mike Taylor Jr. erased the runner at home for the second time in the game.
Heibert Romero worked 3.1 innings in relief of Austin Covers, allowing one earned run on five hits with two strikeouts. Covers went 4.2 innings, allowing two earned on four hits with two strikeouts.