Box Score FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The No. 21 Nova Southeastern baseball team (24-11, 8-8 SSC) dropped a seesaw battle against the No. 5 Lynn Fighting Knights (30-8, 12-4 SSC), 9-8, Friday night at the NSU Baseball Complex.
The difference came in the eighth in a 7-7 ball game, with Lynn runners on second and third and one out. Matt Ackerman (1-for-3) sent a ball into deep left, where
Andrew Liberty (Fr., Boca Raton, Fla.) was underneath it to make the grab. Sal Giardina, Jr. (0-for-3) tagged up from third and beat out the throw home, giving the Knights the final lead of the game.
Alexander Kline (So., Coral Springs, Fla.) (0-1) picked up the loss on the one unearned run that came across in the eighth. Kline faced just one batter in his fifth appearance of the season.
The Fighting Knights drew first blood in the game, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the third.
The Sharks answered emphatically, when they put up seven runs in the home half of the fourth.
Geoff Jimenez (Sr., Pembroke Pines, Fla.) came across for the Sharks' first run of the evening, after Lynn first baseman Alex DeBellis (4-for-4) threw the ball away trying to throw
Mario Urdaneta (Jr., Ocala, Fla.) out at first. Jimenez (1-for-4) took advantage of the miscue, scoring all the way from second.
Brooks Fleming (Sr., Palm City, Fla.) brought in the second run of the inning on a big double down the left field line, cutting the Knight lead to 3-2. It was
Yandy Viera (Jr., Hialeah, Fla.) who gave the Sharks their first lead of the series after his two-run RBI single, scored both Fleming (2-for-5) and Urdaneta (1-for-4) to give NSU a 4-3 lead. The Sharks were relentless, scoring another run on a
Kavan Thompson (So., Melbourne, Fla.) single to centerfield, scoring Viera (1-for-4). The final two runs of the inning came on a costly two-out error by the pitcher Jed Vandernaald, who tried to catch a routine pop fly right outside the mound. Vandernaald misjudged the flight of the ball as hit the ground and scored Thompson (1-for-3) and
Ryan Woodrey (Jr., Lighthouse Point, Fla.), who went on contact. The Sharks led 7-3 after the fourth.
Lynn, in the fifth, mustered in three more runs to cut NSU's hard-earned lead to just one.
Alvin Swoope (Fr., Port St. Lucie, Fla.) double the one-run lead to 8-6, on a double to right in the fifth, scoring Fleming from second base.
The Knights were able to tie the game in the next half inning in the top of the sixth, on a RBI single from DeBellis, then a passed ball later in the inning, scoring Giardina for one of his three runs on the evening.
Roberto Baroniel (Jr., Miami) pitched 4.1 innings to start the game for NSU. Baroniel allowed four earned on seven hits in his outing for the Sharks.
The Knights' Bill Mendek (5-2) picked up the win Friday night. Mendek was the second pitcher out of the pen and didn't give up a run on just two hits in four innings of work.
Lynn outhit the Sharks 13-8 in game one of the three-game series.
The series will conclude tomorrow, with a doubleheader between the two sides, beginning at 1 p.m., at the NSU Baseball Complex.
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