GAME ONE BOX | GAME TWO BOX
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern baseball team (18-10, 3-3 SSC) split a marathon doubleheader against crosstown rivals, the Barry Buccaneers (20-11, 6-6 SSC), Saturday at the NSU Baseball Complex.
NSU lost the first game, 5-2, but came back to win an extra-inning second game, 10-9. In the win,
Alex Marrero (Sr., Miami, Fla.) led off the ninth inning, in a game scheduled for seven, with a triple and scored on
Angel Navarro s (So., Miami Lakes, Fla.) walk-off single up the middle.
GAME ONE
The Sharks were stymied in game one by Barry starter Billy Atkins and could not spark a rally late, falling and dropping the series, 5-2.
Marrero led the offense by going 2-for-3 with a walk and both of the Sharks’ RBI. Marrero drove in
Jose Rodriguez (Sr., Hialeah, Fla.), the only Shark to score, twice.
Brandon Sedell (So., Davie, Fla.) and
Carlos Asuaje (Jr., Weston, Fla.) each had a pair of hits in the contest.
Barry put the first run of the day on the board in the third inning, before the Sharks equalized in the bottom of the fourth. Rodriguez started a two-out rally with an infield single. The bases would fill up when Sedell hit a single through the left side and Reynolds took a pitch to the arm. Marrero put the Sharks on the board with a single through the right side, but the Sharks would strand three runners on base.
The Bucs had their game-defining inning in the fifth, when they posted four runs.
Zachary Westcott (Jr., Weston, Fla.) had a rough inning, but only one of the three runs was earned. The Sharks would keep Barry scoreless for the remainder of the game.
The Sharks posted their final run in the eighth inning. Rodriguez led off with a walk and was advanced into scoring position on a base hit from Sedell. Marrero would drive in Rodriguez on a base hit to score the Sharks’ last run.
In relief,
Josh Glick (Fr., Boca Raton, Fla.) had a solid outing, hurling for 3.1 innings. He allowed two hits and struck out six batters, half of the batters he faced.
GAME TWO
The Sharks salvaged the series by squeaking out a win in the weekend’s third game, defeating the Bucs, 10-9, in a game that took four hours and 35 minutes.
The majority of runs for the Sharks came in the form of home run trots, as the Sharks blasted three in the game. Rodriguez hit a grand slam in the third inning,
Eric Acevedo (Sr., Miami, Fla.) hit a two-run shot in the fourth and
Michael Melendez (So., Miramar, Fla.) hit a solo game-tying home run in the sixth inning. The three combined for 70 percent of the team’s RBI count. Asuaje was also efficient, going 1-for-2 with two runs and a RBI.
The Sharks jumped on the board first in the final game of the series, scoring once in the first frame. Asuaje started off the Sharks’ offense with a double down the left field line that just stayed fair. Melendez, who was bumped up to the second slot in the lineup, drove him home on a double to right field.
Barry once again went on a charge and seemed to put the Sharks down and out. The Bucs scored five runs in the second inning and one in the third. Instead of folding, the Sharks rallied and got a boost of life from Rodriguez’s grand slam in the bottom of the third. The homer was set up by Barry, which put three batters on base. Acevedo was hit by a pitch to lead off the side and Asuaje and Melendez followed with a pair of walks. On a 2-2 pitch, Rodriguez sent a no-doubt home run over the wall to bring the Sharks within a run.
Barry answered back with a run in the fourth, but Acevedo tied it up with his two-run blast in the bottom side of the frame. Navarro started the rally with a one-out single up the middle. On a 3-1 hitter’s count, Acevedo sent the ball deep past centerfield for his team-best fourth home run of the year.
After a scoreless fifth inning, each team scored a run in the sixth. The Sharks’ run came on Melendez’s first home run of the year, a leadoff solo shot over the right field fence.
The see-saw battle continued when Barry scored another run in the seventh inning, as Joe Iorio scored on a solo home run off the top of the scoreboard. Hope wasn’t lost, as the Sharks rallied to tie the game in the final side of regulation. Marrero led off with a walk and advanced on two sacrifice hits, one of which did not result in an out. With one out on the board. Asuaje kept the game alive with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.
The Sharks kept Barry scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings before winning the game in the bottom of the ninth. Marrero once again led off a scoring frame with a triple to left centerfield. The wind that carried several other balls on the night died, and the ball was roughly a foot short of going over the fence. With fans just looking for a sacrifice fly, Navarro kept his hot streak going with a game-winning single up the middle.
Although the Sharks lost the series, 2-1, they salvaged getting swept at home, something that has not happened to NSU in the last four seasons.
NSU will travel to Saint Leo for the next series, beginning on March 28 at 6 p.m.
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