HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The Nova Southeastern University's baseball team (2-3) defeated the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers (0-2) on Friday afternoon, sweeping the doubleheader on a chilly afternoon in Huntsville, Ala.
Game 1 – NSU 11, UAH 8 The day started with a rough first inning, as UAH pushed five across in the bottom of the first inning. While the situation looked grim, that didn't phase the NSU lineup. The Sharks began to chip away at the Chargers' lead in the top of the second inning by loading the bases with one out in the inning. A
Dylan Woods walk and a wild pitch scored
Antonio Rodriguez and
Andrew Liberty, cutting the UAH lead to three. Jancarlos Cintron then flied out to centerfield, scoring
Andres Visbal from third. With two outs, the hot hitting
Kevin Suarez singled through the left side, scoring Woods from third and cutting the Chargers' lead to one.
After UAH scored two more in the bottom of the second and one in the bottom of bottom of the fifth to make the score 8-4, the Sharks' comeback was beginning to mount, starting with a Woods RBI single in the top of the sixth, scoring
Andrew Liberty. The Sharks pulled within two in the top of the seventh after Suarez scored from first on a multitude of errors by the Chargers' defense, throwing the ball all over the field.
In the top of the eighth inning,
Michael Hernandez led the inning of with a double down the right field line. Visbal followed with a bunt single, putting runners on first and third for Woods. Woods took matters into his own hands, drilling a three-run go-ahead home run over the right field fence to give the Sharks a 9-8 lead. NSU would score two more runs, extending the lead to 11-8.
Devin Raftery came tossed the final two innings in relief of
Cameron Churchill, the eventual game winner. Raftery earned his first save of the year, while building the Sharks' momentum leading into game two.
Game 2 – NSU 4, UAH 2 The Sharks carried the momentum they built in game one right into game two, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning to take an early 3-0 lead. Cintron got things started with a lead off single, followed by a walk from Suarez. Gomez then doubled to left center, scoring both Cintron and Suarez. After Zardon grounded out to advance Gomez to third, Rodriguez grounded out to second base to score Gomez.
Matt Hardy was lights out through 4.2 innings before allowing a two-run home run to Huntsville's Ben Rhodes. After Patella worked a scoreless sixth, the Sharks added an insurance run in the top of the seventh on a Danny Zardon two-out single, scoring
Dallas Perez.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Alex Kline struck the first hitter out and then allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases for the Chargers. With the bases juiced,
Joe DiBenedetto made big-time pitches, striking out the two hitters he faced to shut the door on Alabama-Huntsville and complete the Friday doubleheader sweep.
The Sharks will be back in action tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. ET, playing a doubleheader against the Chargers.
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