BOX SCORE
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Carlos Asuaje’s two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth inning propelled the Nova Southeastern baseball team to a Senior Night victory over No. 19 Florida Tech on Thursday night at the NSU Baseball Complex.
In a game delayed two hours and 19 minutes because of an evening thunderstorm, senior pitcher
Mike Gonzalez (Miami) completed his fourth inning of work and ended the game with a pitch at 11:46 p.m. The reliever covered first base on a grounder off the bat of Alex Alfonso, receiving the throw from
Michael Melendez (So., Miramar, Fla.) to end the game.
Asuaje (Jr., Weston, Fla.) plated two seniors –
Brett Clements (Riverview, Fla.) and
Eric Acevedo (Miami) – to give the Sharks the win. With one out, Clements reached on an error, moved to second on a groundout and third on an infield single by Acevedo, on a batted ball that hit the lip between the grass and dirt at second base, careening away from Alfonso.
It was another fortuitous bounce that allowed Asuaje’s hit to bound into rightfield, and with Gonzalez’s pitching in the ninth, the comeback was complete for the Sharks (28-19, 10-12 SSC).
Florida Tech (32-15, 14-8 SSC) had got on the board first, with two runs in their first at-bat off Shark starter, another senior,
Vinnie Contaldi (Jupiter, Fla.). The Sharks quickly tied it in their half with
Brandon Sedell (So., Davie, Fla.) hitting his second home run of the season, plating both he and Asuaje.
In fact, the Sharks’ first five runs came via the home run, as two more seniors got in on the action.
Alex Marrero (Miami) led off the fourth with a solo shot, and after a Melendez single to begin the fifth,
Jose Rodriguez (Hialeah, Fla.) brought the both of them home with a no-doubter to left-center, starting a four-run inning.
Meanwhile, the Panthers scored at least one run in each of the first six innings, two in the first and sixth sandwiched around one in each of the innings in between. It was a 6-3 game when Rodriguez’s shot brought the Sharks within one run, but they weren’t done there.
After a walk to Sedell, Marrero put he and his teammate in scoring position with a double to centerfield. Sedell scored on a sacrifice fly from senior
Kevin Reynolds (Fort Myers, Fla.), while Marrero came in to give the Sharks their first lead on another sac fly from Clements.
FIT was able to regain the advantage in the sixth when the first three batters reached and two of them scored. But Gonzalez was brought on, and after walking his first hitter, got a popout and double play to end the inning, and put up zeroes in each of his last three innings of work to move to 4-2 on the season.
Marrero had three hits on the night to lead the Shark 10-hit attack, while Reynolds added two. Asuaje, Rodriguez and Sedell each had two runs batted in, while Sedell and Marrero each had two runs scored.
The Sharks and Panthers are right back at it on Friday, just barely above 12 hours after the last pitch of the opener. The opener of the doubleheader will begin at noon, and due to school traffic in the area, the second game is scheduled for a 3:45 start unless the end of game one goes past that time.
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