LAKELAND, Fla.—An eight-run second inning is all Southeastern needed to defeat St. Ambrose 11-5 at Joker Marchant Stadium.
The Fire sent 12 men to the plate in the second, highlighted by a three-run homer onto the left field berm by senior Dan Valerio for his sixth of the season. Two more runs scored on a single to left field by Colton Onstott, then a ground rule double by Abdel Guadalupe put Southeastern up 6-0.
Onstott finished the day 3-for-5 with a run scored. Guadalupe was 1-for-2 with three runs scored.
With two outs, and runners on second and third, Adam De La Cruz singled to right to make it 8-0. De La Cruz was 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Felix Dieguez earned his third win in as many decision, throwing 6.1 innings and allowing two earned on five hits. The senior struck out seven and walked five. Those two runs were on a two-out RBI triple in the fourth.
“Ultimately, we did a good job finding a way to score early, we went dead in those middle innings, and tacked some on at the end,” said coach Adrian Dinkel.
Dominc Anagnos made it 9-2 with an RBI single in the sixth which followed a one-out triple by Manuel Mesa who was 5-for-5 at the plate.
In the seventh, the Fire scored a run on a throwing error, them went up 11-2 on a pinch hit sacrifice fly by Josh Nelson.
Bryce Fraser tossed the final 2.2 innings in relief, allowing one earned run on four hits. The Bees got one in the eighth on a two-out single up the middle, and tacked on two more with a two-out double in the top of the ninth.
The teams will face off in a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 11 a.m.