HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – The Nova Southeastern University's baseball team (3-4) split its Saturday doubleheader against the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers (1-3), winning game one by a score of 7-4 and dropping the series finale by a score of 10-5.
Game 1 – NSU 7, UAH 4 Game three of the series began with Alabama-Huntsville scoring one run in each of the first and second innings. NSU would tie the game in the top of the third, beginning a two-out single from Danny Zardon. The junior third baseman advanced to second and later scored on an
Andrew Liberty RBI single. The Sharks would then load the bases for Mikey Hernandez, who drew a walk to score
Antonio Rodriguez. With the game tied at 2-2
Dylan Woods was hit by a pitch, scoring Liberty and the Sharks would take a 3-2 lead.
Huntsville came right back in the bottom half of the third and loaded the bases on
Jonny Ortiz. Ortiz minimized the damage, only allowing one run. The Sharks would score again in the top of the fourth on a Danny Zardon RBI, pushing
Kevin Suarez across home plate. Just as they did the inning prior, the Chargers plated one in the bottom of the fourth inning to tie the game at 4-4.
The game changing moment came in the top of the seventh inning when Mikey Hernandez smashed a three-run home run over the left field fence to give the Sharks a 7-4 lead. Prior the the at-bat, Rodriguez drew a walk, Liberty was hit by a pitch and
Andres Visbal bunted them over.
Cameron Churchill (2-0) sealed the deal for the Sharks, tossing four scoreless innings in relief of Ortiz to earn his second win of the weekend.
Game 2 – UAH 10, NSU 5 The series finale was a tight ballgame for the first few innings. NSU scored in the top of the third inning, as
Brandon Gomez singled and was later driven home by
Sebastian Diaz. The Chargers fought right back in the bottom of the third inning, scoring one run off of the Sharks' starter
Joe DiBenedetto to tie the game at 1-1. NSU would take a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth when
Jacob Blackiston drove a ball to deep left field to drive Visbal in.
Huntsville would then break the game wide open in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring nine runs off of DiBenedetto, Steve Fleming and
Julian Loret de Mola to take a 10-2 lead. That didn't stop the NSU offense from competing, as
Austin Pereira belted a three-run home run in the top of the fifth inning to pull the Sharks within five runs.
Unfortunately, the Sharks couldn't string together a hits in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings and NSU dropped the series finale. Nonetheless, NSU went up to Huntsville, Ala. and took three-of-four from a Chargers team that is in the NCAA South Region hunt year in and year out.
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