Fire Bounce Back in Sun Conference Play with Sweep of Seahawks

No. 1 Southeastern Takes Two of Three From RV Keiser with Saturday Afternoon Doubleheader Sweep
LAKELAND, Fla.- On a day where winds were gusting up to 20 miles per hour towards the infield, the No. 1 Southeastern University baseball team bounced back from a four-game skid in Sun Conference play with a momentous doubleheader sweep of the receiving votes Keiser University Seahawks Saturday afternoon. The Fire cruised to a 7-1 win in game one before earning a 5-4 10-inning walk-off win over the Seahawks in the second contest to take two out of three in the weekend series.
GAME ONE
Entering the day, the Fire had outscored opponents 88-13 in the second inning of play. SEU continued that trend with a four-run second frame in game one to get on the board.
Junior outfielder Abdel Guadalupe nailed a double left center that drove home senior infielder Dominic Anagnos immediately after Anagnos notched a double of his own. Junior catcher Colton Onstott recorded another RBI base hit, a single through the left side that brought Guadalupe home and put SEU ahead 2-0.
Senior infielder Ivan Nunez capped off the big inning with a double down the left field line that brought Manuel Mesa and Adam De La Cruz across to score.
The double moved Nunez into a tie for ninth with Dave Moskovits, who is currently an assistant baseball coach at Warner, in the SEU career doubles’ standings at 37.
After battling through a bases-loaded jam in the top of the second, senior right-handed starting pitcher Keven Long was dialed in for SEU, sitting down eight straight Keiser hitters from the top of the third through the top of the sixth.
Long went eight strong on the mound for the Fire, tossing eight innings, allowing one run, walking two, and striking out five. With the winning decision, the Dixon, Ill. Native earned his team-leading eighth win of the season.
The Fire brought across two more in the bottom of the fourth and another in the bottom of the fifth to take a 7-0 lead.
The Seahawks finally broke through for their lone run of the contest in the top of the seventh with two outs on an RBI single by Peter Crocitto.
Senior lefty Austin Covers tossed a scoreless ninth frame to close things out for SEU.
GAME TWO
Senior left-handed pitcher Felix Dieguez tossed one of the most impressive no decisions one could imagine.
After Nick Diaz reached on an error to lead off the top of the first and Juan De La Cruz was hit by a pitch in the top of the second, Dieguez dialed in to retire 18 consecutive KU hitters, recording seven of his nine strikeouts during that stretch.
The Tampa native carried a no-hit bid into the top of the eighth with two outs, where it was broken up on an infield single by Shane Olive.
Dieguez had received some backup at the plate up to that point, as a two-run homer by Mesa (his 11th of the season) put the Fire on the board in the bottom of the third. Anagnos blasted one up the middle in the bottom of the fourth that brought Dan Valerio and Noah Strohl home, giving SEU a 4-0 lead.
The Seahawks’ bats awakened after Dieguez’ exit, plating four runs on three hits and an error in the top of the ninth to knot things up 4-4.
An inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth sent the contest to extra innings.
The Fire took advantage of command issues by the Keiser pitching staff to earn the win. After Keiser conceded three-straight walks in the bottom of the tenth, Manuel Mesa was plucked by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring home the winning run in Guadalupe.
Junior right-handed pitcher Marc Soto earned the winning decision after tossing one and two thirds of one hit relief to close out the game. Soto improved to 3-1 on the season.
DINKEL’S DUGOUT
“We’re going to take wins any way you can get them, especially with how we have been playing these past couple of weeks. But we’ve just finally got some guys that are playing harder and playing more team baseball. We made a lot of mistakes and it was a tough day to hit with the wind, so I was happy with the offense taking what they can get and running the bases we ran the bases,”- Adrian Dinkel, Southeastern Head Coach.