Eagles, Fire and Bobcats Winners on Day One
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Top-seeded Embry-Riddle, second-seeded Southeastern and fourth-seeded St. Thomas were all victorious on day one of the 2014 Sun Conference Baseball Tournament at City of Palms Park. The six-team event will determine the second automatic berth to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round.
Game 1 - Embry-Riddle def. Warner, 8-5
The 15th-ranked Eagles battled back from a one-run deficit twice to come away with an 8-5 victory over the Royals of Warner in the first game of the tournament. The Eagles snapped a two-year skid in the opening game of the tournament.
Kevin Lindheim put the Eagles up 2-0 in the first with a two-run blast to left off of Aaron Kehres, but the Royals answered with three runs in the third off of Stetson Nelson, two coming off the bat of Dylan Gross as the Royals took a 3-2 lead.
Jake Cavender knotted things up with a solo home run in the fourth, but again the Royals went ahead Gross collected his third RBI of the day with a groundout that put WU up 4-3.
Embry-Riddle went ahead for good in the sixth with three runs, including two on Hunter Bruehl's single to right. Warner refused to go away quietly, scoring a run in the bottom of the frame to cut the lead to one run, but this time the Eagles had an answer when Darryl Knight recorded a sacrifice fly to increase the ERAU cushion to two runs at 7-5.
David Lidyard held the Royals scoreless over his few innings of relief, and after Knight delivered an insurance run in the top of the ninth with his 10th homer of the year, Corey Tufts collected his first save of the season by setting down the Royals in order for the 8-5 win.
Game 2 - Southeastern def. Webber International, 5-3
Southeastern continued its season trend of coming from behind with late inning magic as the Fire scored four runs in the eighth to emerge with a 5-3 win over the Warriors of Webber International in the day's second contest. WIU led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-1 before SEU put the game away with the four-run eighth.
Josh Ganus and Patrick Kinney were on the mound for their respective teams and Ganus held the Fire scoreless through four complete innings as his team gave him a 1-0 lead in the second off a Dylan Price double off the wall in left center.
TSC Player of the Year Bryan Muniz delivered the game-tying run with a double in the fifth, his 24th of the season and the game remained 1-1 until the seventh when Shae Cothran singled to score the go-ahead run for the Warriors.
Lane Crosson added an RBI single in the eighth for Webber International, but Ganus ran out of gas in the home-half of the frame as the Fire sent eight batters to the plate in the inning. Austin Davis brought in two runs with a single up the middle to tie the ball game before T.J. Glessner gave the Fire the lead for good with his own two-RBI single as SEU took a 5-3 lead.
The Warriors put runners on the corners with two outs, but Aldo Ferrante gunned down Price at second as he tried to steal the base to end the game in favor of SEU.
Game 3 - St. Thomas def. Thomas, 12-0 (7 inn.)
The final game of the day was delayed for almost 90 minutes due to rain/lightning in the area, but that didn't seem to bother the Bobcats and Eddie Cody. The Sun Conference Pitcher of the Year tossed a one-hitter in a 12-0 shutout of the third-seeded Night Hawks while his team exploded for 12 runs on nine hits, taking advantage of two TU errors and five walks.
STU scored a run in the first off of Ben Overman and that was all Cody needed as he set down the first 14 TU batters he faced before hitting Josh Bruijn with a pitch, but by that time, the Bobcats held a 10-0 lead
The big blow for the Bobcats came in the third when they spent 45 minutes on offense, scoring seven runs on just three hits to essentially put the game away.
Tyler Palmer broke up Cody's no-hit bid in the seventh, but Cody retired the next three Night hawks to secure the victory in shutout fashion.
Fernando Escarra finished 3-for-4 with four RBIs for the Bobcats while Michael Centeno and Adam Duarte each had two RBIs for STU.