Team Effort Guides Baseball past Florida National

LAKELAND, Fla.—A day that saw 16 position players and seven pitchers see time in the field, the Southeastern University baseball team recorded a 16-2 win over Florida National to improve to 41-2 on the year.
The Fire started slow, getting two runs in the second, but didn’t register a hit until a Keiner Colmenarez singled up the middle with one out in the third. In the next at bat, Adam De La Cruz registered his first three-run homer of the game, which gave SEU a 5-2 advantage.
De La Cruz started a seven-run inning which was concluded with a two-run Marvin Malone double with the bases loaded, and picked up two bases on a ball thrown out of play.
In the fourth, Kainalu Pitoy hit a pinch-hit three-run homer in the bottom of the fourth to give the hosts a 12-2 lead. Torrence Summerlin added a pinch-hit RBI single to left to increase the advantage to 11.
De La Cruz’s second three-run homer was in the fifth. He finished 2-for-4 with three runs scored, six RBIs, and a walk. Pitoy finished the day 2-for-2 with a run and three RBIs.
Ten players combined to record SEU’s 12 hits. The Fire also benefit from 10 Florida National walks issued by four pitchers.
Braden Holub earned the win, pitching the third inning, recording a ground out, fly out, and a strike out, facing six hitters, and allowed a run on two hits. Heibert Romero, Colton Tison, Adrian Rivera, and Eddie Jimenez all threw a scoreless inning of relief. Tison was the only one of the group to allow a hit.
The Fire return to Sun Conference play on Friday when they host Ave Maria at 6:30 p.m.