Pitchers Dominate Day Two at City of Palms

Pitchers Dominate Day Two at City of Palms

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Donnie Smith

FORT MYERS, Fla.—(updated bracket) The men on the mound were the story during the second day of play at The Sun Conference Baseball Tournament presented by Homewood Suites.
 
City of Palms Park serves as the host for the 2017 event.
 
Sun Conference Pitcher of the Year Daniel Garmendia spun a gem for Keiser to eliminate USCB with a 4-0 win in the first game of the day. Garmendia threw nine shutout innings, striking out seven, and surrendering a single hit.
 
Julio De Pena put up a solid line for the Sand Sharks, scattering 11 hits over seven innings, and recording 10 strikeouts.
 
Zack Saldivar, Brad Mott, and Tivon Faneyte each had two hits for Keiser.
 
The Seahawks will meet St. Thomas Sunday at 3 p.m., which forced the “alternate bracket” by staving off elimination with a 4-1 win over Thomas.
 
Chris Rodriguez went the distance for the Bobcats, allowing one run on four hits, recording six strikeouts with two walks. Rodriguez got 11 batters to ground out.
 
The first three hitters in the STU lineup were a combined 6-for-13 with an RBI. Orlando Rivera was 3-for-5 with and three runs scored. Rivera also broke the tournament record for stolen bases in a game with four.
 
Southeastern remained unbeaten in the tournament with a 9-6 win over Webber International in the final game of the day.
 
The Fire jumped out to a 7-0 lead after an inning and a half, thanks to a pair of doubles by Marcus Guzman, which drove in five runs.
 
Webber International battled back with three runs in the second, and added two more in the fifth. John Jaeger was able to pitch two solid innings in relief to keep his team in front to earn his 10th save of the season.
 
After struggling in the second, SEU pitcher Nate Harmon recorded eight strikeouts against two walks, giving up five runs on eight hits.
 
Guzman and catcher Gerald Ceballos each finished 3-for-5.
 
The Fire will await the winner of Sunday’s first game, which will pit Thomas against Webber International at 11 a.m.
 
Live streaming of each game is available through Stretch Internet.