FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University baseball team (11-10, 3-3 SSC) dropped their doubleheader against the Lynn University Fighting Knights (14-8, 6-0 SSC) by scores of 11-8 and 8-6.
Matt Hardy (4-1) and
Devin Pellien (0-1) earned the loss in their respective games, while Lynn's Jonathon Wake (1-1) and Rigo Beltran (3-0) earned the wins.
Game 1 – Lynn 11, NSU 7 The Sharks fell into a deep hole early in the game, as they found themselves down 9-0 at the end of the second inning. Lynn scored three in the first off of NSU's starter
Matt Hardy, on a three-run homerun over the left-centerfield wall. Hardy was unable to stop the bleeding in the second inning, as the Fighting Knights tagged him for six more runs on six hits. Hardy faced one batter in the third before handing the ball over the
Julian Loret de Mola, who allowed two runs in the third and no runs for the rest of the ballgame in an outstanding effort out of the bullpen.
At the plate, the Sharks began to chip away at the Lynn lead in the second inning, scoring two runs on a RBI-single from
Andres Visbal and a sacrifice-fly from
Dylan Woods. NSU went on to score three runs in the fourth inning, thanks to a two-RBI double from Jancarlos Cintron and a RBI-double from
Sebastian Diaz. NSU would score one in each of the fifth and sixth, as Visbal smacked an RBI-single and Gomez launched his seventh homerun of the season, respectively. Unfortunately for NSU, the bats went cold in the seventh, eighth and ninth, as they fell by a final score of 11-7.
Daniel Zardon and Suarez each collected three walks, while Hernandez and Visbal had two hits in the game. Loret de Mola struck out nine in seven innings of relief work.
Game 2 – Lynn 8, NSU 6 Similar to game one, NSU fell into an early hole, finding themselves down 4-0 after two innings. Lynn managed to score two runs in each of the first and second innings, spraying seven hits against the Sharks' starting pitcher
Jonny Ortiz. NSU didn't let the four-run deficit last long, as
Dallas Perez laced a three-run triple to right centerfield, pulling the Sharks within one run.
Devin Pellien took over the pitching duties for Ortiz in the third, and managed to hold the Lynn to one run through the sixth inning. While Pellien kept the Fighting Knights' offense guessing, NSU managed to put together a three-run sixth inning to take a 6-5 lead. The scoring began when
Brandon Gomez scored from second on an errant throw by the Lynn third baseman on a double play attempt. Soon after, Visbal drove a ball to right field, deep enough to score Diaz from third. With the bases loaded and two outs, Perez beat out an infield single, scoring Hernandez from third.
The NSU lead was erased by Lynn in the top of the seventh inning, as Pellien walked and allowed a double to the first two batters he faced.
Devin Raftery would come on to pitch and both of Pellien's runs would score and Raftery allowed one of his own runs as well. With an 8-6 lead, the Sharks offense was down once again and proved to have no life left, as NSU sent one more than the minimum to the plate in the last three innings.
NSU will be back in action Tuesday night, taking on Southern New Hampshire at 6:00 p.m. at the NSU Baseball Complex.
