No. 1 Southeastern Downs Edward Waters in Jacksonville, Aims Sights at Sun Conference Crown
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.- The No. 1 Southeastern University baseball team concluded its non-conference portion of the regular season with a doubleheader sweep of the Edward Waters College Tigers at James P. Small Park. SEU fended off an EWC rally 6-3 in game one before cruising to a 10-1 victory in the second contest.
GAME ONE
Southeastern defeated Edward Waters 6-3 despite being out-hit by the Tigers 11-8 and only striking out one EWC hitter.
The Fire conceded the opening run to the Tigers in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Marcus Judd to go down 1-0. This marked the only time in either contest Southeastern trailed.
SEU capitalized on EWC mistakes to take the lead in the bottom of the third. Senior shortstop Adam De La Cruz crossed the plate on the first of four errors committed by the Tigers’ infield in the game. An RBI ground out by junior catcher Colton Onstott brought Manuel Mesa home to put the Fire ahead 2-1.
After stealing third in the top of the fifth, Mesa took home on a throwing error by the EWC catcher to put the Fire ahead 3-1.
De La Cruz belted his second double of the contest in the top of the sixth, this time with Anagnos and Dan Valerio on, both of whom scored on the two-RBI base hit.
Southeastern plated its sixth unanswered run in the top of the seventh when a fly out by senior infielder Ivan Nunez was deep enough to right field to score Mesa on the sacrifice and put the Fire ahead 6-1.
The Tigers attempted to mount a comeback in the bottom of the seventh, scoring two runs on two hits to make it a three run-game with no outs in the frame.
However, junior lefty Ryan Munoz shut the door, entering the final frame to silence the Tigers, allowing just one hit in a shutout inning to earn his first save of the season.
Junior right Bryce Fraser improved to 3-0 on the season as the winning pitcher after allowing just one run in four innings of work.
GAME TWO
SEU flipped the script in the second game, out-hitting EWC 11-2.
A major reason for this was the dominance of junior righty Nick Ferngren, who tossed a complete seven-inning game, where he walked just one, struck out eight, and retired nine-straight Tiger bats from the bottom of the second through the bottom of the fifth.
The Fire jumped out early on the Tigers with a four-run inning in the top of the second.
An RBI single by Mike Taylor Jr. and RBI groundout by Alex Mangome got the Fire started.
De La Cruz continued an electric day at the plate with an RBI double down the left field line that brought Thomas Delfel home. On the day, De La Cruz was 5-7 with four runs batted in and four doubles.
Mesa capped off the big frame by stealing home outright to put SEU on top 4-0.
After Edward Waters got on the board in the bottom of the fifth, the Fire responded to smother the Tigers in the later frames.
Junior outfielder Abdel Guadalupe launched his team-leading 15th home run of the season in the top of the season, a three-run no-doubter over the left field wall to put SEU ahead 9-1. Anagnos scored on a wild pitch later in the inning to round out the Southeastern scoring for the day.
The Fire conclude regular season play with a Sun Conference series at home this weekend against Thomas. First pitch for game one is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m.