FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Nova Southeastern University baseball team (16-11, 6-4 SSC) defeated the Saint Leo Lions (18-11, 3-4 SSC) on Thursday night by a score of 11-4, as the Sharks earned their sixteenth win on the year.
Alex Mateo picked up the win, moving his record to 4-3 on the year and dropping his ERA to 2.63.
NSU found themselves down in a 3-0 hole after the Lions scored three runs in the top of the first inning, highlighted by a two-run opposite field homerun that nicked the foul pole in left field from Troy Sieber. Mateo quickly settled in following the first, rattling off four straight scoreless innings before allowing an unearned run in the top of the sixth.
While Mateo was getting the job done on the mound, the Sharks pounded Saint Leo's pitching, scoring 11 runs in the ballgame, while spraying 13 hits to all fields. The first run production came off of the bat of
Dallas Perez in the bottom of the second inning. After the Sharks loaded the bases, Perez stepped to the plate and launched his first home run of the year, a grand slam off of the scoreboard in left field to give the Sharks a 4-3 lead.
The Sharks would go on the score two runs in each of the bottom of the third, fifth, and sixth innings. In the third,
Brandon Gomez and
Andres Visbal produced a run each on a RBI-double and RBI-single, respectively. In the bottom of the fifth, Visbal sent a two-run homerun over the netting in left field and off of the building, one of the most impressive homeruns of the season for the Sharks to make the score 8-3.
After the Lions scored their final run in the sixth,
Sebastian Diaz smashed his first homerun of the year, a two-run shot over the left field wall. NSU tacked on one more in the seventh when Jancarlos Cintron singled up the middle, scoring Anchia.
All nine players in the NSU lineup garnered a hit on Thursday night, the first time that has happened in 2016. The Sharks are back in action tomorrow afternoon with a doubleheader against the Lions beginning at 1:00 p.m.
Tweets of the Night
