LAKELAND, Fla. — The Fire picked up their league-leading 12th conference win of the year Friday with a 5-2 victory over visiting Florida Memorial.
Kade Wagner improved to 8-1 with a dominant performance, retiring 11 of the first 12 hitters he saw. The one that did reach base, Wagner picked off. The senior threw eight innings, did not allow an earned run, and struck out six.
The Fire dented the scoreboard for the first time in the second inning, on an RBI single by Luke Maher. A walk to Marcus Guzman loaded the bases with no outs for De’John Suber, but a routine fly out to right ended in a triple play when Maher was out returning to second and Derek Martin was out trying to score.
Luis Diaz picked up a pair of RBIs in the bottom of the fourth on a single to left field to give the Fire a 3-0 lead. The senior finished the day 3-for-4, and picked up his nation-leading 10th triple of the year, and school-record 22nd of his career. Diaz also scored a run in the eighth after leading off the inning with a single to right, and touched home on a sacrifice fly by Mike D’Acunti.
In the seventh, Danny Acevedo came off the bench for a pinch-hit sac fly to score Maher.
John Jaeger picked up his fifth save of the season, throwing six pitches in the ninth, netting a pair of groundouts and a fly out to end the game.
The two teams will wrap up their series Saturday with a doubleheader starting at noon.
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