LEWISTON, Idaho—A stellar outing on the pitching mound combined with a 17-hit outburst at the plate gave Southeastern University a 10-2 win in its elimination game against Freed-Hardeman.
Keven Long was excellent on the mound, tossing eight and two-thirds innings on 147 pitches with eight strikeouts, allowing just one earned run on four hits and three walks, with half of the hits coming in the ninth. Long retired 10 straight from the fifth to the leadoff hitter of the ninth.
“He got in some trouble early on but found a way to settle in,” said coach Adrian Dinkel. “He’s the ultimate competitor and is a bulldog and why he’s on the mound in an elimination game.”
That trouble was a 25-pitch first inning that allowed Freed-Hardeman to tie the game at one heading to the second.
“I had to relax,” said Long. “With it being my first time being here, I had to remind myself to settle down. I attacked and got ahead and good things happened.”
During the run of 10 straight retired by Long, the Fire expanded their 3-2 lead with a four-run seventh inning, and added two more in the eighth to put the game out of reach. Mike Taylor Jr. led off the seventh with a single to right, one of his career-best four hits on the day, and scored on a two-run double by Ivan Nunez.
Noah Strohl drove in two more with a single through the left side, and finished the day 3-for-5 with three RBIs.
In the eighth, Taylor led off with a double and scored on a double by Manuel Mesa, who finished 3-for-6. The Fire tacked on another in the ninth when Taylor drove in Dan Valerio, who singled to left to start the inning.
The teams traded runs to start the game with the Fire getting on the board in the top of the first on a Strhol RBI single, bringing home Dominic Anagnos. The Lions took advantage of a pair of errors to bring in a run in their half of the first. An RBI single to right with two outs in the third put SEU up 2-1, but an RBI double by Josh Sears tied the game.
Following the Sears double, Long retired six of the next seven he faced until Sears reached on an error.
Southeastern will play again on Monday at 2:30 p.m. Eastern against the loser of the Tennessee Wesleyan vs. Indiana Tech game.
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