GAME ONE BOX | GAME TWO BOX
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Two grand slams from
Michael Melendez in Saturday’s second game allowed the Nova Southeastern baseball team to avoid a series sweep by No. 6 Tampa, winning 11-6 after dropping the first game, 3-1.
Melendez (So., Miramar, Fla.) gave the Sharks (25-18, 7-11 SSC) the lead in the series’ final game, 6-3 in the fifth inning, when his opposite-field shot snuck just over the leftfield fence. Then, after Tampa (36-10, 16-5 SSC) scored three times to knot the game at 6-6 in the sixth, the Sharks loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom half.
Carlos Asuaje (Jr., Weston, Fla.), who had been 0-for-6 up until that point on the day, lined a 1-0 pitch right up the box past UT pitcher Preston Packrall to score pinch-runner
Angel Navarro (So., Miami Lakes, Fla.) and push NSU ahead at 7-6. Melendez then followed with another opposite field shot, this one to left-center and again over the fence, for his second grand slam of the game and an 11-6 lead, which would be the eventual final score.
For the series, Melendez reached base eight times, going 6-for-11 with two walks. He scored three runs, knocked in nine RBI and also had three stolen bases.
GAME ONE
Starter
Zachary Westcott (Jr., Weston, Fla.) took the hard-luck loss in Saturday’s first game despite only allowing five hits over seven innings of work.
Tampa scored once in the first, on a home run by Michael Danner. NSU would tie it in the second inning on a long fly by
Brandon Sedell (So., Davie, Fla.), his first homer as a Shark.
The Spartans got the go-ahead runs in the top of the fifth inning off Westcott (3-4). In the NSU sixth, UT turned (as it did on Friday night) to reliever Mike Adams, who wiggled out of a jam with a runner on third and two outs. Adams retired the Sharks in order in the seventh and eighth, and stranded Melendez on second after a leadoff double in the ninth to pick up the save.
Melendez had two of the Sharks’ five first-game hits, with one each coming from Sedell,
Jose Rodriguez (Sr., Hialeah, Fla.) and
Brett Clements (Sr., Riverview, Fla.)
GAME TWO
Prior to the late-game heroics of Melendez and Asuaje, Tampa took an early lead, again scoring in their first at-bat. The Spartans plated one run on a double and single to start the game against NSU starting pitcher
Mitchell Buerosse (Jr., Lighthouse Point, Fla.), and added two more in the third.
The Sharks cut the deficit to one in the home half of the third.
William Rudolph (Jr., Parkland, Fla.), like Sedell in game one, notched his first-ever NSU dinger, a solo shot to left to start the frame. After Clements walked, a double by
Eric Acevedo (Sr., Miami) moved him over to third. Asuaje knocked in Clements with a groundout to shortstop to make it a 3-2 game.
Melendez’s slam in the fifth pushed the lead to 6-2, before the tying Tampa runs in the sixth, and the Sharks’ five in the bottom of the sixth.
Reliever
Julian Loret de Mola (So., Miami) retired the side in the seventh to preserve the first NSU win for reliever
Josh Glick (Fr., Boca Raton, Fla.), now 1-0 as a Shark.
Melendez and Acevedo both had two hits in the finale, with each scoring two runs. Besides Melendez’s eight runs batted in, Asuaje had two and Rudolph the other on his solo shot.
The Sharks will take their final road trip of the season next weekend, traveling to Winter Park, Fla., to take on Rollins College for a Friday-Saturday series. Game one will be May 3 at 6 p.m., with games two and three taking place the following day beginning at 1 p.m.
For the latest NSU news and results, be sure to visit
www.NSUSharks.com. To have results sent directly to your cell phone via text message, sign up for SMS text message delivery by
clicking here. For the latest news, be sure to sign up for the Shark Alert E-newsletter by
clicking here.
